Well, I don't mean shooting down U-2s, since we don't fly those anymore, I mean the hypothetical "10 U.S. balloons over China since the start of 2022". Why did it take more than a week to trot out that claim? Of course it's already been categorically denied on our end. I strongly tend towards believing our intel/military people on this one, simply due to the sophistication of our satellite tech. But maybe we have a need for in-situ comms sniffing over there that can't be accomplished on the ground, idk.

I guess I'm curious why they kept tempting fate with the U-2 when Powers was shot down in 1960. Didn't even initiate the Black Cat squadron until '61. Hard to believe that it wasn't just like you imply, knowingly sending aircraft and pilots to their deaths or capture. Dude how long do you think it takes to ride an ejected pilot's chair with parachute down from 70k+ feet? That's gotta be like something around 30 minutes. Got a whole military junta welcoming party by the time you touch down.

btw, I love the stories of the SR-71 in its heyday, when they'd be like "missile locked on to us, sir". "OK, full throttle", and that was the end of that. U-2slow would've been the meme.

But yeah, maybe we're a few weeks out from the Chinese fabricating a U.S. balloon take-down. Would not surprise me at all. Still, any UAV shootout exchange, real or fabricated, does not scare me nearly as much as the increasing desperation of Vladimir Putin.