“I mean, if a rival nation was launching missiles 35 miles off the US coast, why would the military even leave the issue open to speculation..”
why ? because 1) IF it was ours, something is seriously wrong if there is that kind of activity, and no one seem to know a thing. I agree with other posters, if that was ours, by now we would know. 2) IF IT IS NOT OURS, it is a MAJOR disaster for our entire Defense apparatus. China or Russia are the only two possible “senders” of that piece of hardware. Either one, our military looks very, very, bad. Just as bad as on 9/11 when the only two airplanes they could scramble were totally unarmed. What do we pay all the defense $$ for ? This ? I want my money back !