Extraordinary claims and all that. I can poopoo this footage as an output of AI or something like that. But here’s a member of US congress saying it’s real so… What the heck are we to believe in this case? I certainly have no humanly explanation for it. If it’s a foreign adversary doing that they’ve left behind engineering as we know it and will surely rule the world.
I say these things because as an occasional flyer of flying things I cannot reconcile anything in aviation that can withstand a direct hit from a missile, do a tumble like that, and just right itself and keep going… and even keeps maneuvering! Tanks: yes, but there’s a reason tanks don’t fly… This. Blows. My. Mind. I got nothing, nada. And I can’t help but suspect it’s real.
This is not an isolated video and I’m sure we’ve all seen some others. But this one… this may be the one that convinces me.
Hellfire missiles are designed for air-to-ground applications, notably tanks. They don’t say if it was intended to collide with the drone, or some other target.
I suspect the “reason” may be as simple as: it is what was on the drone when they spotted the object and that’s the only thing they had around.
I should add an addendum of speculation online that the object is … wait for it… the much vaulted weather balloon. I’m previously aware that guessing speeds on these videos is difficult due to issues of parallax. You have some high-altitude jet moving at a rapid pace filming something at a non-zero altitude and thus depending on the relative movements the background can be misleading if you’re keeping some object centered. This could just be a relatively stationary balloon being ripped apart and starting to descend half-inflated but SEEMING to be moving rapidly due to the parallax. Though… tough to say that this is what we’re seeing in the video… (eg: Why would you fire hellfire missiles at random weather balloons?). But it does give a more occam’s-friendly explanation of what’s going on.
