Just out of curiosity… suppose that balloon was releasing airborne biological pathogens… just letting that crap float free…
Or is it too high up for those to survive?
I don't think that will work. There are much better, easer and cheaper ways to introduce a pathogen to the US. Its not like we have a secure border.
Apparently they have been doing this for quite a while. At the end of WWII before we dropped the nukes we would send daily B-29 flights over Japan. Just two or three plains once a day.
At first the Japs would take whatever countermeasures they could. But after weeks of daily flights the B-29s never dropped any ordnance so the Japs just started ignoring them.
Then BOOM. China may be using the same tactic. Get DOD accustom to the flights as expected. Then attach an EMP to one and BOOM.