a quick google search reveals why usg is confident the balloon had military application: because US is already doing it. Stratosphere is considered a domain between airplane land and satellite land to be exploited for coms & surveillance. US program is COLD STAR; the inevitable
"shoot down balloon" project is TRIPPWIRE. Guess it wasn't quite ready. sacyr.com These things are intended as cheap, high endurance loitering platforms for surveillance and coms & yes the key issue is how to get them to stay in one place.
Assume PRC wants loitering capabilities over SCS/Taiwan Strait. These things aren't really designed for cruising so I'm guessing a local PRC test flight went walkabout. As the NATO video shows, the instrument package can be retrieved with a parachute/GPS arrangement, which is
an option I guess PRC might want to install next time. Long story short apparently an embarrassing cockup not an attack or op. Here's the crop of links describing the US & NATO programs: armyupress.army.mil
and obligatory bloodthirsty "drone swarms launched from balloons!" thedrive.com
on the OTHER hand, the prc cudda been working on its version of Google's Loon project (using high altitude balloon to bring connectivity to PRC's remote western regions). Check out this pic of the Loon mission:
hmmm! Here's a link to the page: stratocat.com.ar Given the outward resemblances, half-*ssed execution & the lack of security measures like instrument package recovery, I'm placing my bet on a civilian coms test gone awry.
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