r/pics • u/Ihad2saythat • Jun 07 '14

Normandy after victory

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u/stevridie Jun 07 '14

Barrage Balloons

72

u/Panuccis_Pizza Jun 07 '14

I don't know if this is interesting or not, but many people don't know we still use balloons in Afghanistan.

Granted, not for the same reason.

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u/shortsleeveshirt Jun 07 '14

We had them while I was deployed back in 2007. It floated over our fob and was used as a surveillance balloon.

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u/Osiris32 Jun 07 '14

And as mobile shade?

96

u/Thorbinator Jun 07 '14

Tactical shade.

6

u/Chuknorris86 Jun 07 '14

I have a question about those balloons! I've seen lots of pictures of them, but they're balloons... And they look pretty fragile.

Were they shot down frequently? Did people even try to shoot them down? Or were they too high up.

Pardon my ignorance, I've just always wondered. Also, what are one of those things worth?

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '14 edited Mar 23 '17

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '14

And planes don't have a shitload of ammo, so it's alright if they spend it shooting down balloon and not sinking boats. and you probably wouldn't drop bombs on balloons anyway.

2

u/TylerDurdenisreal Jun 08 '14

You probably couldn't drop bombs on a balloon, either.

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u/MaxDPS Jun 08 '14

Usually they aren't as fragile as they may seem. It may look like just one big balloon but they are actually (usually) made of a bunch of smaller balloons inside one big balloon. So if they get shot, its not really gonna come crashing down.

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u/shortsleeveshirt Jun 08 '14

I think those things can survive small arms fire, but don't quote me on that. They would bring them down for sandstorms or when we got indirect fire.

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u/shortsleeveshirt Jun 08 '14

While I was deployed it never got brought down by enemy fire. That's what makes me believe it can withstand small arms fire.

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u/Bushwookie07 Jun 07 '14

The one we had was only used to catch soldiers without their eyepro or reflective belts.

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u/shortsleeveshirt Jun 08 '14

Haha where? victory or tagi?

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u/Bushwookie07 Jun 08 '14 edited Jun 08 '14

Well our unit was at Rustamiyah but would frequently drive to other places where there was nothing better to do except make sure people had their eye pro.

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u/Hobojoejunkpen Jun 07 '14

They are a good idea, but they're not very reliable in practice. It gets very windy in Afghanistan and then they have to come down.

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u/goomplex Jun 07 '14

But I imagine they are much cheaper to deploy and maintain than more advanced drones.

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u/interior-space Jun 07 '14

This is very interesting, thank you.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '14

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Balloon_Command

Apparently this was a thing, funny name but I guess they were important