Any competent Field Artillery Officer will tell you that precise weather data over the target... and along the flight path of the projectile is needed to have the most accurate round placement.
Everything from winds aloft, speed, direction, density altitude, temperature, precipitation, and other atmospheric ballistic data aid to ensure that a projectile or MRV has the best-targeting data possible and the greatest chance of a direct hit.
Those 'stray balloons' seem to have a propensity for wandering over key US Military installations... and could easily be gathering weather and atmospheric targeting data for potential targets of the Chinese Military. Only a fool would dismiss this possibility. Pearl Harbor had its radar sightings dismissed... will these Ballons be summarily discounted?
This kind of targeting data is ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT for targeting HYPER-VELOCITY REENTRY OR SUBORBITAL projectiles... munitions traveling at hyper-velocity speeds need current and detailed atmospherics to be accurate... Example: MRV'D warheads or the latest class of offensive missiles...
Those errant Chinese Balloons could have a very important role in the preparation of any future battlefield... extending, way beyond targeting data for missiles and conventional rounds/munitions. Certain forms of communications and the location of key command and control facilities together with their electronic defensive measures could be accessed using those Ballons.
I don't believe those Balloons are anomalies, nor are they off-course weather balloons.
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P/S... The Questions that need to be asked are being avoided... and with the health of our president as it is along with the status of our border and economy this is not the time to be partisan or ideologically blind to serious risks... We need to have up-to-date contingency plans for dealing with the worst-case scenarios popping up nearly daily.
It is also time to build our war reserves... open the oil spigots and refill the nation's National Oil Reserve stockpiles. Crank up the military-industrial complex and rapidly restock our war reserves... munitions, repair parts, and bring all of our combat systems, military equipment, and military stores up to their war reserve status.
It is also a time to assure China we are not looking for war... However, we need to warn them that incursions such as the recent balloon fiasco must stop... and any move to invade Taiwan or to further exacerbate our relationship could be ... very, very disastrous. We don't want war but if the Chinese continue to probe and inflame the geopolitical balance of power we may inadvertently end up in a place neither of us wants.
BUMP...