really smart decision to wait until it made our coastal waters...recovery of key pieces should be much easier in 47 feet of water, instead of them smashing into the ground, or someone's home...not so easy to predict where ~2,000 lbs of free falling debris might land. The DOD handled this just fine and not overruled by the WH.
btw, here is a local Oklahoma FOX stations report on this, suggesting that the Chinese probably got nothing out of their sojourn...yet, we...with our recovery of equipment in shallow water...will be able to 'reverse engineer' the spy package it carried...note:...shooting it down over the Pacific is not a good choice...much deeper and colder waters...again, great choice by JB's true "Pros".
https://www.fox23.com/news/chinese-balloon-likely-wasnt-successful-gathering-intelligence-about-us-osu-professor-says/WBQEKWCNSFCXHDG2GC2APU45WY/
Link: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/what-is-up-with-this-chinese-spy-balloon.html
It was funny but weird at first. Now it's just sad.
this country every day...they've been doing this for a very long time...those folks knew about it when it came to the Aleutians and decided to wait until it was over our Eastern Coast to end it's journey...and collect all the pieces for ourselves.
On the other side we have people...such as yourself...who know literally nothing about what's going on...I'm going with the Pros...instead of the true "Clowns" ;-).
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AFB via "Open Skies" satellite but my point being the balloon pinpoints the GPS on the ground within a couple of degree seconds so a nuke not necessary to target for a precision hit particularly if they they do have a hypersonic missile ability.
"By Wednesday, when the balloon had made its way to the skies above Billings, Mont., Pentagon officials were alarmed because the state is home to the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, one of three U.S. Air Force bases that operate and maintain intercontinental ballistic missiles. One Pentagon official described shock at what officials viewed as a blatant, and poorly concealed, effort at spying. A senior Biden administration official called the move audacious."
And to paraphrase Napoleon, don't ever ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence.
I'd hate to be the guy in China who OK'd this.