In a war between the US and China, could China rely on balloon-carried kamikaze drones to bombard the US west coast? Japan tried this in WW2, but dumb bombs released by timed drop were basically completely useless.However, now, Shahed drones are available and everyone is trying to make them. I can imagine China pumping out gazillions of Shaheds, sticking them on balloons, and having them get pushed to America by the Jet Stream. The drones would detach from the balloon perhaps 1,000 km from the shore, then plow into a power plant, power substation, electrical transformer, port, factory, school, hospital, etc. in the nearest city. Defending against this would be very hard, as China's massive manufacturing base would allow for the production of enormous amounts of balloon-Shaheds. Also, Ukraine relies on ground-based sensors to detect Shaheds, and ground-based interceptor drones, light aircraft, and guns to shoot them down. Shooting down Shaheds coming from the sea and hitting targets on or near the coastline would be much harder. It would probably require persistent AWACS coverage of the entire Western coast and likely carrier support, which would be a big ask in a full-scale great power conflict.So, is the US prepared to deal with this threat? What can be done to counter China using the jet stream to carry balloon-Shaheds to America?
>>64991975no one is afraid of china and their 100 year old pathetic technology
>>64991975Balloons are indeed the future of warfare
>>64991975>yfw the f22 was just training for this eventuality
>>64991975>CENTCOM wants to know your location
Actually, now that I think about it, balloons carrying rapid dragon systems would be pretty fucking cool.Or fuck, just zeppelins.
>>64992540Forgot Pic
>>64991975USA could use the first island chain to bomb mainland china
>>64991975>China's massive manufacturing baseWill be a radioactive crater?
>>64991987The f35 had a new hole ripped inside its asshole recently and was forced to do a "rough" landing, with the pilots face full ov shrapnel
>>64992823>The plane critics said was "fragile" because it wasn't an A-10 and only had one engine survived a SAM hit and got the pilot back to base
>>64992543>sublaunched>balloons>equipped with rapid dragon racksImagine the shenanigans
>>64992832I know, right?
The thing with balloons is heavy payloads means the carrying balloon is going to be huge. The Chinese one the Raptor downed was visible from the ground with the naked eye. Anyone wanting to missile or laser it down easily can. And trying to rapidly fill and deploy one is not possible, they are very fragile.
>>64992866So we use blimps and loiter like B-52s used to.
>>64991975Interesting idea OP. They'll need a fuel preheater/deicer and maybe Gerbera size is more appropriate. Also they can be slick aero because no takeoff requirement.
>>64991975Chinks can make enough carrier rockets to make 1000 hypersonic gliders that can deliever a 1000 kg warhead anywere in America per month. Thats a far better investment than your balloon drones and well within chinese capabilities. That would also be enough to fuck up America to such a degree that it would have to tap out.
>>64992823
>>64991975
>>64991975At one point the US was using balloons to spy on the Soviets. They proved to be very annoying to deal with. Because they were basically a shopping bag filled with air they have fuck all radar signature. They fly soo high and slow they're basically invisible and a massive ass to intercept. The USSR occasionally shot them down with missiles. But that cost too much. Then they started intercepting them with aircraft but because of the aforementioned altitude and low speed the only aircraft that could get close enough had to stall to get a clean shot. Which resulted in some planes being lost.That's right, the yanks got multiple maneuver kills with fucking balloons.
>>64991975What would stop burgers from spotting the balloons over the pacific and just shooting them down before the drones get released?
>>64993825Stealth balloon technology
>>64991975they tried that already
