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Using guns wouldn’t work well because of various interesting aspects of physics. It was tried before on a different balloon and based on that they used a missil
by JCM9 4y ago
Using guns wouldn’t work well because of various interesting aspects of physics. It was tried before on a different balloon and based on that they used a missile. In this situation it was important that the balloon be disabled in one hit and crashed within US territorial waters to avoid bigger headaches. The US regularly patrols just outside a Chinese airspace and for the US to shoot at something outside it’s airspace or have the ballon crash in international waters would open up a whole different can of worms.
- arethuza 4y agoPerhaps worth noting that the US did overflights of China with drones (or at least attempted to) as recently as 1971: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_D-21 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_D-21
- 10xDev 4y agoWhy is something "as recently" as 1971 worth noting?
- bell-cot 4y agoTalk to a diplomat about "precedents". And to someone familiar with current politics in China about the policy of cultivating memories of past indignities, which were suffered at the hands of foreign powers.
- smeagull 4y agoIndignities as recent as 1945.
- bell-cot 4y agoI’m thinking that quite a few indignities were far more recent. Perhaps you are using the word as a euphemism for thing far worse?
- Ralfp 4y agoMake it eastern Europe, and you can go all the way back to 1003.
- bell-cot 4y agoIf you're opening the can of European/Near Eastern History, the clear record of foreign power atrocities (vs. mere indignities) goes back quite a few millennia further than that.
- red-iron-pine 4y agoAs recent as 1842
- arethuza 4y agoOf course it doesn't justify what China did (I wasn't making a "two wrongs make a right" argument) - but it might help explain the thought processes of the Chinese leadership in pulling a stunt like this - I would suspect that they are aware of US overflights over China.
- vetinari 4y agoNot just China, and not just drones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_U-2_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_U-2_incident However, this incident is going to establish an interesting precedent of when it is ok to shoot down an satellite.
- richiebful1 4y agoHow is this fundamentally different from the U-2 incident? The precedent is already set: a nation has sovereign rights over its airspace
- arethuza 4y agoInterestingly enough there doesn't seem to be an agree vertical extent as to where "airspace" stops: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspace I don't see how this would set a precedent - it was over the US and they shot it down, seems pretty clear cut to me.
- ceejayoz 4y ago> Interestingly enough there doesn't seem to be an agree vertical extent as to where "airspace" stops... I suspect you'll get pretty universal agreement that 60-80k feet isn't that limit, though.
- manuelmoreale 4y ago> Interestingly enough there doesn't seem to be an agree vertical extent as to where "airspace" stops But there is a somewhat shared definition of where space start in the Kármán line at 100km of altitude so it should follow that the vertical airspace stops where space sparts? I might be completely wrong though.
- inglor_cz 4y agoThe difference between a baloon and a satellite is pretty massive, and airspace != space. Granted, there is no clear border between those two (the Kármán line is somewhat artificial), but there is a clear difference between orbiting stuff and stuff that needs air in order to fly, and long term behavior of powers that be clearly distinguishes between those two.
- throwaway4aday 4y ago[flagged]
- arethuza 4y ago"Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, bots, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- Salgat 4y agoThat was before even Nixon's famous visit when we still had zero diplomatic relations with China, and those drones were completely replaced by satellites, which both the US and China use on each other to this day. Your 50 year old example has zero relevance to today.
- frankfrankfrank 4y ago[flagged]
- throwawaylinux 4y agoWhat's nonsense?