4 ms·
Because they will be destroyed immediately
by ExpertAdvisor01 7mo ago
Because they will be destroyed immediately
- nine_k 7mo agoTo shoot something down at 70,000 ft (21 km) all you need is a conventional military jet fighter, and a long-range rocket, or even a MiG-31 with a conventional cannon. At best you can make these birds cheaper than the rocket + flight time. Something that flies at the upper edge of the stratosphere, at 40-50 km (160,000 ft) would be hard to reach with currently available means. You can of course fire a THAAD at it, but you can fire a THAAD at a Starlink satellite as well.
- pacificmint 7mo ago> you can fire a THAAD at a Starlink satellite as well. You can fire a THAAD at one Starlink satellite, but probably not at 8000 of them. For comparison we’re currently producing THAAD interceptors at a rate of 96 a year (though Lockheed is aiming to increase it to 400).
- nine_k 7mo agoExactly; it's a limited and very expensive capability. Nobody would want to spend it on a $100k stratospheric flying vehicle, if the latter existed. It does not exist though, if you do not count weather balloons.
- ExpertAdvisor01 7mo agoThe f-22 balloon kill was at the same height as the altitude quoted on their website . Like you said either any fighter jet + missile or an high altitude jet + auto cannon will shoot it down reliably. This is probably a good solution for redundancy if you already have air superiority.
- The_President 7mo agoThey won’t be shot down over land without debris falling to the ground.