I'm convinced that's why the balloons haven't been shot down in the past. Learning our detection abilities is probably way more important for China than anything they would be able to take a picture of.
The immediate assumption that the Americans are being snookered comes off like reflexive anti-Americanism.
Another plausible theory is the Trump administration covered it up because of their deference to Xi in early 2020 (see: comments on COVID being under control).
Now a hypersonic missile, or a stealth plane -- that would be a test. But losing one of those would be pretty expensive.
My understanding is that these UAFs are much smaller than that first Chinese balloon last week.
It probably also costs a lot more money to shoot down a balloon than it costs China to put a balloon in the air.
They can detect an incoming missile, so I don't see the problem. Maybe the one today IS a lot smaller; I don't think we're getting a whole lot of details on that.
As for the money: definitely. The same would be true of drones.
Active duty pilots must fly X number of hours per month to maintain their fight status. Essentially, they practice like athletes (because they are literally athletes, among other things)
So intercepts like these, and even silly stuff like sports event flyovers, come out of their existing budgets.
To actually cost us money in some meaningful way they'd have to send over extremely large quantities of drones that absolutely blow out the existing budgets for our bases.
The missiles are expensive, of course: $400K a pop for those AIM-9X. But the budget for the USAF is ~$160B/year, so again, drop in the bucket.
https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/12/07/us-army-laser-stry...
So far they're offering good sport for the USAF. I'm glad they decided to take action and shoot'em down instead of letting them pass undisturbed through US airspace. This should send a clear message to uncle Xi to keep his lantern festival at home.
lasers or regular ammunition.
Ordinance has a best used by if not a shelf life. Use it or lose it probably matters to someone.
Missiles can detonate near a painted target, instead of needing direct contact. If the thing being exploded is hazardous (when exploded), you don't want to be flying nearby.
This is not an exercise. Combat time is valuable, even if shooting down drones/balloons.
Politically popular optics. Everyone likes a boom, just to be sure. What happens if it falls to the ground and on to someone or someone grabs the wreckage or worse, it's never found? Bad optics.
The common tactic of dismissing high stakes situations as idiotic, is intellectually lazy.
That is a lot of bang for the buck.
Don't they have radar signatures only rivaling that of a lawnmower?