The "balloon" has caused a bit of a stir. Almost everyone yelled "shoot it down". That in my opinion was destroying evidence. Now capturing the payload is not trivial but not impossible. We learned how to do that in the 60s! Yes folks, well before most of your parents were born! I was there then. X-15 and F104.
So why did the Government blow it to pieces. Either that was just a scam to put of the ChiComs or it was intentionally meant to destroy evidence. It did make for good TV but bad Intel.
The devices on-board held invaluable intel regarding sources and methods. Sources such as where did the technology come from and methods as to how it sent data back and forth. But now we will never know. The Government made sure of that.
How then could this be retrieved. Well at 60,000 feet an F22 can easily get there. Then it could "hook" a retrievable parachute to the device, assume we have a great pilot say from Edwards and then good 50 caliber shot to deflate the balloon. Down it come with GPS tracking in one piece. Off a carrier send a helo to retrieve and then examine. Simple but it requires competence not the correct pronouns.
Perhaps that is why we never won a war with the Generals that we started with. Except Washington.
So what were both sides hiding?
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