Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Mowenatl t1_j77h3p7 wrote

A skyhook on a high altitude plane / drone could easily capture it.

Bottom line is the US would rather use it as propaganda / a public spectacle than take it down. The US has had all important / classified military infrastructure hidden below ground since the prevalence of satellites.

If the US wanted to take it down they could have easily done so before it was over mainland USA. Even our older, declassified, radar arrays can detect baseball sized objects thousands of miles away. Presumably our latest Gen systems, meant to detect the launch of hypersonic weapons, could have detected it right when it was lifting off.

4

w2ltp t1_j7b4u32 wrote

You are technically correct, but still wrong. The balloon's altitude was way too high for this method.

2

Mowenatl t1_j7lxgty wrote

You can use one or two balloons which are attached to a tow line deployed from the back of a plane that has sufficient power to drag the balloon and equipment down. You loop or entangle your target balloon, deflate yours, reel the target ballon in, then pop/ deflate it when it’s close to the ground / aircraft.

Maybe I should have called it reverse skyhook as clarification.

1