any safety risks because there was an urgency here. this balloon is not armed, it does not pose some physical threat to the united states, even from an intelligence perspective. the chinese have much more effective ways of picking up intelligence from the satellites and otherwise. the fact that the president said what he said about taking care of it. now we have the physical fact that the balloon is heading towards the atlantic. these airports in north and south carolina are being closed for the moment. it does seem to set the stage and present an opportunity to have this shot down. it is really not a reversal. i think they ve been preparing for this and contingency planning. once it is not overland, it changes the calculus. general, weigh in for me if you will, you heard the presidents words there, we are going to take care of this. from your estimation, what is taking care of this look like and what are the risks and calculations going into that decision? i think what
once it gets over the continental united states, from the atlantic, i think you will find that the north american air defense command along with the northern command, the national security aide will make a recommendation to the president to shoot it down. what it will probably look like, given that this is around 60,000 feet in the air, we normally fly around 30 to 35,000 feet. you will probably see it come down by attack aviation assets, be at the f-16 fighter jet we will have you. i m quite sure the air force will be involved in bringing down this balloon. general, if you will, as dan just mentioned, the chinese have more effective ways of spying and gathering intelligence and information. why in fact would they rely on something like this, a spy