Originally Posted by ECHO24

After letting a Chinese spy balloon meander around recording our nuclear missile sites for 6 days, not sure there's an issue here other than the political theater of shooting down non-threats. Could it be the US government, who sends up almost 100 of these every day, and the US Air Force are not aware of weather balloons?

"On any given day, nearly 1,800 weather balloons are launched across the world, including 92 here in the U.S. and U.S. territories, according to the National Weather Service. Each flight lasts around two hours, during which a balloon drifts up to 125 miles and can reach an altitude of 100,000 feet. However, NWS Public Affairs Director Susan Buchanan says 125 miles is unusual. While weather balloons can drift as far as 180 miles, they typically travel only 30-35 miles downwind from their launch site,"

"The few launches done by amateurs every day are just a drop in the bucket ..."



https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/weat...s-turns/story?
id=97082985#:~:text=How%20many%20weather%20balloon s%20are%20there%3F,to%20the%20National%20Weather%2 0Service.