(February 3, 2023 at 11:38 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: [...] the army can not bring it down because it is too high up, and, being a balloon, you can not lock rockets on it.
1) The Air Force is responsible for defending American air space. The Army wouldn't be tasked with bringing it down except in a tactical- or operational-level combat.
2) You can certainly lock missiles onto a balloon. The gondola on this one will return usable radar image, and I'd be willing to bet it throws a sharp infrared gradient in the cold air that high.
3) I'd bet the AMRAAM would be able to hit it if fired inside a good envelope, i.e. supersonic climb.
