[MIchaelTArchangel]

The Chicoms have found a serious chink in our defense radar systems. While the ground-based and space-based radars see everything in the sky, NO-RAD pays attention to fast-moving targets such as missiles and jet aircraft which they display on the monitors in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. Years ago the geniuses at NORAD decided all slow-moving objects such as light propeller driven private aircraft were “noise” and installed filters so those bogies would not be displayed on their screens. Balloons that take days to “fly” across the USA are inherently slow-movers. Here is a rule of radar: If you do not look for it, you will not find it.

[servantoftheservant]

They knew it was there, they just didn’t care.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The problem is if you do not filter, you get overwhelmed by clutter. I recall seeing over 10,000 flocks of migrating Canada geese on a 60 nautical mile range airport surveillance radar.

[bert]

So, how was the balloon in question tracked from China, around Korea, across Japan and northeasterly to the Allutions and then Canada before actually entering the USA I believe in Idaho?

Was the balloon drifting with the jetstream?