With the possible exception of Ukrainian casualties in the war, I’ve never felt less informed by the news and my own government than on the Chinese balloon story. China says it is a research balloon. The common view in the United States is that it is a spying device. We know that it doesn’t resemble other weather balloons. And it’s much larger than them. It seemed to have “unexpected maneuverability.”
China certainly uses satellites, like we do, for visual recon over the United States. That reduces but doesn’t eliminate the use cases for high atmospheric surveillance. But, we’ve typically used versions of the SR-71 Blackbird for such surveillance. This balloon is far more conspicuous — it’s huge, for one — and considerably cheaper. Though I imagine it’s unpredictable.
I hope the U.S. government recovers the balloon’s surveillance and measuring equipment and tells us more. I’m certainly not satisfied with the story as it has been presented to us.