What was the last thing the Chinese "weather balloon" saw…

[LoudThunder]

Not sure who might have posted anything about 20mm or other such cannon rounds in the thread.

I am the probably the one who mentioned 20 mm guns , not that they could or would use the Gatling gun to bring it down. I simply brought up the gun to say it was not much of an option. It all goes back to the folks who asked why we did not shoot it down when it first entered the airspace over the Dakotas and I only wanted them to understand that shooting it down with bullets probably was not much of an option and the danger of that missile over land, even open range land mostly populated by cattle would still have left the debris trail stretching over miles of territory.

Now if I were the Chinese, I would periodically fly real weather balloons over the US and if any were shot down, they would be a real weather balloon; thereby making the Americans out as "paranoid, war-mongers" on the world stage. Then after enough embarrassing weather balloon shot downs, the Americans would reluctantly stop out of embarrassment and then I would start including real Spy Balloons surreptitiously among the weather balloons, as the Americans would have stopped shooing down the balloons…

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I am the probably the one who mentioned 20 mm guns , not that they could or would use the Gatling gun to bring it down. I simply brought up the gun to say it was not much of an option. It all goes back to the folks who asked why we did not shoot it down when it first entered the airspace over the Dakotas and I only wanted them to understand that shooting it down with bullets probably was not much of an option and the danger of that missile over land, even open range land mostly populated by cattle would still have left the debris trail stretching over miles of territory.

Now if I were the Chinese, I would periodically fly real weather balloons over the US and if any were shot down, they would be a real weather balloon; thereby making the Americans out as "paranoid, war-mongers" on the world stage. Then after enough embarrassing weather balloon shot downs, the Americans would reluctantly stop out of embarrassment and then I would start including real Spy Balloons surreptitiously among the weather balloons, as the Americans would have stopped shooing down the balloons…

Ah, no worries.
I think they played it safe and fired from an altitude they know the sidewinder would be fine, and maintain aircraft performance well below the ceiling limit of the F22.

I'm not sure why the balloon altitude was estimated at between 60,000' and 65,000' (the latter being the F22 ceiling), maybe altitude isn't as easily identifiable at those extremes, so possibly went with the missile for the extra altitude.