Look Up! Chinese Spy Balloon overhead

[jrbfishn]

Can't help wondering if it was a trial run for airborne distribution. Kinda like 'small pox blankets'. Very suspicious, but I used to work for the gov't too.

After Covid, I'm surprised that it took this long for people to start wondering that. I didn't post it but it was one of my first thoughts.
If nothing else, China proved one thing I have been saying all along.
A bio weapon does NOT have to kill of large amounts of people to be effective. It just needs to cause enough caos to disrupt normal operations of government and infrastructure and the economy. Exactly what Covid has done for the last 3 years.
Is there anyone hear stupid enough to think China has stopped doing that type research? Ot makes me wonder just what that RESEARCH balloon was researching????

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

 

[DougC]

The South get a special visitor from an unknown Facebook post

 

[Renegade]

Other tidbits coming in are there were at least 12 planes airborne over target area at time of shootdown from AF, Navy and CG. F-22 was also traveling at 950+ mph (mach 1.3) and shot from 5 miles according to audio and missile made a 6k climb. F-22 had to get down to 25K for refuel right after shot.

 

[motorcarman]

 

[Renegade]

Didn’t know the F-22 could not cold cue the 9X as it does not use the JHMCS. Thought that had been resolved years ago.

 

[General Zod]

Didn’t know the F-22 could not cold cue the 9X as it does not use the JHMCS. Thought that had been resolved years ago.

I still don't understand the Air Force's reluctance to use JHMCS in the F-22. It's in use in F-16s and F-15's (and an even more capable helmet mounting cueing system is in the F-35), and F-22 pilots wear the same helmet that was worn in the late 80s. Not having it really takes out half of the AIM-9X's advantages with losing the high off-boresight targeting ability.

There are photos of F-22 pilots wearing JHMCS helmets...but other than test flights they don't seem to have been adopted.

 

[toddnjoyce]

I still don't understand the Air Force's reluctance to use JHMCS in the F-22…

Integration issues. Cockpit/canopy size/shape are a factor as is the ability to map the helmet to the cockpit. Thales has a different HMD that was much more svelte and even the photos of that show a snug fit. Whether the mapping issues were also apparent with the Thales HMD is beyond my knowledge.

 

[Renegade]

There are photos of F-22 pilots wearing JHMCS helmets...but other than test flights they don't seem to have been adopted.

I have seen photos of F-22 using the Scorpion helmet, but not the JHMCS. Drive says JHMCS is too big

 

[General Zod]

I have seen photos of F-22 using the Scorpion helmet, but not the JHMCS. Drive says JHMCS is too big

You're right, it's the Scorpion. It's still a glaring hole in capability that they can't take advantage of off-boresight cueing on the -9X in an F-22.

 

[toddnjoyce]

I have seen photos of F-22 using the Scorpion helmet, but not the JHMCS. Drive says JHMCS is too big

For perspective, the canopy rails on the F-22 are much lower than on other fighters, relative to the pilot’s seated height. It’s hard to tell that from most of the public photos, but I remember a USAF F-22 two patcher talking about it at Eglin. He said that was actually a big deal: instead of just being able to looking out the canopy, you could essentially look out and down the side of the aircraft which really changed some things in the visual fight.