IAF scrambles to defend nuclear plant, shoots down balloon-UAV?

[TLAM Strike]

New type of Terrorist UAV? A motorized balloon...

An IDF spokeswoman said an Israeli warplane "shot down a suspicious flying object, probably a balloon, in southern Israel". Israeli media reports said the balloon was unmanned but powered by an engine.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomac...actor-1.330959

It wouldn't be the first time a terrorist UAV flew a recce over Israel.

[antikristuseke]

Trying what the japanese did with baloons and bombs in the second world war?

[Raptor1]

An unmanned motorized balloon? That's...new...wonder what whoever built it was trying to achieve...

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Raptor1

...wonder what whoever built it was trying to achieve...

To see what kind of defenses are around a plant that makes/made nuclear bombs.

[Oberon]

Probably exactly what it did achieve. A test of reaction times and defences.

[Raptor1]

I can't see how something like this would tell anyone anything useful, the presence of SAM sites and air cover there is well known for decades. The only thing it could've told him is whether they would bother shooting down something like a motorized balloon, and I could've guessed the answer to that very easily.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Raptor1

I can't see how something like this would tell anyone anything useful, the presence of SAM sites and air cover there is well known for decades. The only thing it could've told him is whether they would bother shooting down something like a motorized balloon, and I could've guessed the answer to that very easily.

Alternatively it could be to see how much effort Israel puts into defending from that UAV, and whether they can be distracted by it enough to sneak something else in. A bit of a random way to go about it, but that's lateral warfare these days.

[Raptor1]

Hmm, I suppose you could be right. These sort of people don't usually make any sense, whoever they are.

[geetrue]

Originally Posted by Raptor1

An unmanned motorized balloon? That's...new...wonder what whoever built it was trying to achieve...

Perhaps a camera on board or some poor high school science projects experiment gone bad

[Gargamel]

Originally Posted by geetrue

Perhaps a camera on board or some poor high school science projects experiment gone bad

I know I've seen video of a an Iphone 4 that was sent to 160,000 ft on a weather baloon, before it popped, they were using a HD camera for video and the Iphone for the GPS tracking so they could recover it. A dad and his young kids did it for fun.

Lower the altitude, add some RC electric fan thrusters, voila, Recon drone.


Hell, If I had the time and money, I'd do that. Just not send it over my local nuke plant.

Wasn't it a "Balloon" that was found at Roswell, NM?


Christ! They started a War with E.T. now!

[Gargamel]

Originally Posted by privateer

Wasn't it a "Balloon" that was found at Roswell, NM?


Christ! They started a War with E.T. now!

Ahhhhh.. no worries mate.... all we need is a macbook with a virus

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Raptor1

An unmanned motorized balloon? That's...new...wonder what whoever built it was trying to achieve...

Building one unmanned balloon with an engine = 400$
Scramble a jet fighter and shoot it down = 25.000$
(estimated values....)

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

Building one unmanned balloon with an engine = 400$
Scramble a jet fighter and shoot it down = 25.000$
(estimated values....)

I'm sure there are much more damaging thing one could do with that amount of money and effort...