I think this is the real reason the balloon wasn’t shot down earlier.
“Senior defense official to reporters just now: “The surveillance balloon’s overflight of US territory was of intelligence value to us... we were able to study and scrutinize the balloon and its equipment, which has been valuable.””
“More on recovery: “We will provide under NORTHCOM command & control a Salvage Vessel, the US Navy, which will be on scene w/in a couple of days. The debris is in 47 feet of water, primarily—The recovery that will make it fairly easy. Actually, we planned for much deeper water.””
“Here’s a different prospective of the balloon shoot down. AIM-9 detonates just below the actual balloon itself.
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https://twitter.com/IntelCrab/status/1621976474562461699