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I’ve seen some unconfirmed claims that they show it with a missile whose warhead fuse was disabled. Normally anti-aircraft missiles are proximity fused and thr
by Merad 4y ago
I’ve seen some unconfirmed claims that they show it with a missile whose warhead fuse was disabled. Normally anti-aircraft missiles are proximity fused and throw out lots of fragments when they explode, kind of like a giant shotgun blast. With the warhead disabled presumably it just punctured the balloon to deflate it and, as you say, hopefully let it come down intact.
- sarchertech 4y agoF-22s have a 20mm cannon, and they can operate at 65k feet. I don't know why they would need a disarmed missile just to poke a hole in it.
- metadat 4y agoPerhaps the quantity of holes from an aircraft cannon is harder to control and less surgical than a single ground based missile? Somehow I doubt wasted funds were at the top of the priority list (because intel is valuable, this whole incident has been a huge "WTF?" so far).
- Merad 4y agoThe official service ceiling of the F-22 is only 50,000 feet. There’s no doubt that it can fly higher (for example the F-15 set zoom climb records going up to nearly 100,000 ft) but at those altitudes controlling an aircraft gets a lot more difficult due to the thin air. If the F-22 _does_ have good control at those altitudes then using that capability for the shoot down would be revealing previously unknown (presumably classified) info about it. If it doesn’t, attempting a zoom climb close enough for a cannon shot would carry some risk… even if just risk of missing and having to try again while the whole world watches.