Object Shot Down Over Lake Huron Was “Shaped
Like an Octagon”: Wall St. Journal and
Rep. Bergman Report
Gateway Pundit,
by
Kristinn Taylor
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
2/12/2023 5:39:56 PM
Cue the Twilight Zone theme.
The Wall Street Journal reported the object shot down over by U.S. planes Lake Huron Sunday afternoon was “shaped like an octagon.” Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI) said in an interview with Fox News a few minutes ago the object shot down by an F-16 that fired an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile was an “octagonal structure” over Lake Huron at about 20,000 feet. Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) implied in a statement the object was the same one tracked over Montana Saturday night (tweet posted further down in article.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Birddog 2/12/2023 5:49:27 PM (No. 1401286)
Inflatable kiddie pool...filled with helium. Next will be some of those inflatable santa clauses, snowmen etc...Now would NOT be a good time to strap a bunch of balloons to lawn chair and take a trip, no matter how many tictok/twitter/youtube likes you might think it would generate.
7 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
DVC 2/12/2023 5:49:30 PM (No. 1401287)
The manufacturer of the Sidewinder missiles is happy that we are expending so many now. And the pilots, I guarantee you are smiling secretly....normally "Fox 2" ( the radio call meaning "I just fired a Sidewinder") isn't something that they nearly ever get to say, other than "pretend" firings in training.
Firing a live missile.....cool stuff when you trained for it for a decade and never took a real shot.
Either the ChiComs have gone nutso with the spy balloons or Traitor Joe and his evil minions are playing us for suckers.
17 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
IowaDad 2/12/2023 5:53:46 PM (No. 1401290)
That's what eight party saloons tied together with a little bow look like.
1 person likes this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
BigTimeTrumper 2/12/2023 6:04:22 PM (No. 1401294)
PedoJoey found a joy stick and is shootin down stuff for fun and games....Never mind he's incompetent and impotent...he still has the mojo when it comes to video games if it involves shootin stuff or checkin out the young chics....Corn Pop probably helpin PedoJoey....
2 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Quigley 2/12/2023 6:06:06 PM (No. 1401297)
I’m glad it wasn’t shaped like a pentagon.
These politicians seeking military glory are knuckleheads. Too bad they woke.
Go back to sleep.
4 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Birddog 2/12/2023 6:07:41 PM (No. 1401298)
Gas math is the tough part...helium at ground level would be about 13% to 18% of full for most envelopes, it will expand as it rises and atmospheric pressures lessen, at around 20-25,000 feet it would then exceed the capacity/stretch deformation of anything not designed specifically for those altitudes...then it will burst. Carrying even a small battery running a small computer cooling fan suspended inside would perhaps give enough air/gas mixing to spread the deformation out instead of concentrating it at the peak allowing longer aloft time. Usual practice is to have a parachute formed over the top of it so that whatever payload sent can be recovered after the burst, a simple cell phone or gps tracker doesn't weigh much. 1 mole of helium, displacing one mole of "Air" creates a lifting capacity of about 12grams, the weight of the envelope and the payload required dictate the size envelope required. Something the size/strength of a dry cleaning bag will carry a couple of lbs.
3 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
GoodDeal 2/12/2023 6:28:22 PM (No. 1401308)
A Sidewinder missile is a heat seeking air to air missile. They track on the tail pipe heat of an enemy jet. It is suspicious that they used this weapon since balloons have no jet engines or any heat source a Sidewinder could possibly detect.
10 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
WV.Hillbilly 2/12/2023 6:31:57 PM (No. 1401311)
This 2021 article explains a lot.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40054/adversary-drones-are-spying-on-the-u-s-and-the-pentagon-acts-like-theyre-ufos
1 person likes this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Tet Vet 68 2/12/2023 6:49:43 PM (No. 1401320)
I can see the headline now Pentagon shoots down Octagon.
3 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
janjan 2/12/2023 6:52:48 PM (No. 1401321)
I won’t let my granddaughter let any balloons go. We’ll have fighter jets flying over the neighborhood. Biden is overreacting to make up for his abject failure at letting a spy balloon fly across the continental US like it belonged there. He’s a joke.
6 people like this.
Repeat after me..."Klatuu barada nikto..."
3 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
stablemoney 2/12/2023 7:29:20 PM (No. 1401332)
How much money are these cowboys spending to shoot down balloons? You would think you could send a piper cub plane up and someone with a rifle.
6 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
wilarrbie 2/12/2023 7:38:30 PM (No. 1401338)
Good one #9! LOL!
1 person likes this.
#7 - The latest variant, the AIM-9C, homes in on reflected radar. Good to see something besides a fifth-generation stealth fighter sent up to do the job.
0 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 2/12/2023 8:00:34 PM (No. 1401346)
Using a $100,000 missile to shoot down a balloon doesn’t bother me. Use what works. NORAD and our military are there, or should be, to protect this country. The damned things could have some sort of EMP device or carrying the latest bat virus courtesy of “Doctor” Fauci. I actually think the Chicoms saw how easy it was to traverse the US with a balloon the first time gathering intel that they figured FJB would let them send a couple a day.
1 person likes this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
DVC 2/12/2023 8:30:26 PM (No. 1401364)
Re #7, what you said used to be true, isn t now. Current 'Winders have far superior thermal discrimination, and actually form images of anything that is at a different temperature than the background. On a level to slightly upwards shot, the background is sky....anything warmer than around -50F, the effective thermal radiation temperature of the sky, will stand out and make a great target.
The 'Winder has been an "all aspects" missile for many, many years now. IIRC, that came with the AIM-9L model, first fielded in a war during the Falklands War in the early 80s.
On a personal note, a close family member flew test pilot on testing flights in a B-17 test aircraft with an early USN heat seeker prototype mounted in the nose, flying close behind a P-80 early jet, to see if the concept of a heat seeker missile guidance system could work. The rest of the aircraft was full of technicians and equipment supporting that prototype seeker.
Early rear-only Sidewinders were effective in Vietnam if pilots flew to where they got a good tone in their headset, indicating that the missile was seeing a good heat target. Fire without a tone on the early version....and miss.
Current models are very effective from any aspect.
3 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
DVC 2/12/2023 8:39:34 PM (No. 1401372)
Re #14, the AIM-9C is very far from "the latest version" and I don't believe that it was used on aircraft, and AFAIK was briefly fielded as AIM-122 in a ground air defense system.
All the Sidewinders that were used on aircraft have been thermally guided, getting dramatically better in the early 80s, where they can see any target that is significantly warmer than the background, extreme engine heat is not necessary.
2 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Debrawr 2/12/2023 10:00:58 PM (No. 1401411)
Kite.
0 people like this.
#17 - The knowledgeable rebuttal is appreciated.
0 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
DVC 2/12/2023 10:43:17 PM (No. 1401445)
Re #14/19, please take it as a gentle correction, not a rebuttal.
As a military weapon tech geek, I have spent years learning about all these systems, often from active duty family members who use them. The most I learned about JDAMs was from a relative that dropped a number on ISIS. Few have that interest or background, so happy to make corrections....as were made to me when I got it wrong many times in years past. It was how I learned.
1 person likes this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
MickTurn 2/13/2023 11:39:31 AM (No. 1401824)
I wondered where my Octagon shaped Drone went as it flew north never to be seen again......./S
0 people like this.
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