Originally Posted by
DodgyGeezer
Yes, a UFO could be a deployment device for biological/chemical weapons (a supposition made by an earlier poster) but the severity of such a threat should be balanced by its probability which can be estimated with reasonable accuracy with appropriate intelligence....
I stated that it was POSSIBLE to distribute bio weapons this way - but I never supposed that this was the case. The problem for intelligence staff is that if you have an unidentified balloon there is no way of telling what it might be, short of examining it. And the easiest way to examine it is to bring it to the ground. If you can engage the object economically and safely, that seems to be the best course to take. What else would you have them do - find a way to examine it in mid-air?
Yes, exactly that. Don't tell me its beyond the technical capabilities of the most advanced military in the world to make sufficient observations of a balloon in its own airspace such that it can be reasonably satisfied that said balloon is not a floating weapon of mass destruction. It doesn't seem to me to be that 'easy' to examine it by blowing it out of the sky. Firstly you have to shut down the airspace, you also have to deploy AAR assets, fast jets, etc, then use a rather expensive missile to deflate the thing. Assuming anything worth examining actually survives and falls to the ground, you then have to find the pieces, something that (with the exception of the Chinese balloon that was a legitimate target, albeit shot down a little on the late side) the US and Canada have so far failed to do. Maybe if they hadn't shot them down they might have been able to observe them sufficiently so as to be satisfied what they were and who they belonged to.