I kinda admit that the weaponizing the balloon for modern warfare looks very tempting. Using a balloon does offer a very unique opportunity to put HGVs at very high altitudes with extremely minimal costs. The balloon does not even need to maneuver to the target, it can be floating hundreds, or thousands of kilometers away from the target. Upon release, the HGVs can glide themselves onto the target. So no need for ballistic missiles or jets to put them at very high altitudes in the first place.
The balloon can also carry radars, sensors, and EW suites at very high altitudes. So there are some other potential uses there too.
Nevertheless, the biggest drawback for using balloons is it's very slow speed and limited steering ability. So I also see potential for the balloon to be used as a cheap decoy and terror weapon against American forces. Especially when they are aware that there is a variant that can drop HGVs onto them. Let them burn fuel and missiles onto balloons instead of more valuable assets.
I think you guys are not thinking in the right way. The whole point of balloon is cheap and expendable. If you are using a high end weapon like HGV you may as well pair with a high end platform to maximize the performance.
We should rethink about balloon as a survillence platform. Yes satellite can do it better but it is not the point. Don't fixate on the capability, focus on the political nature of it combined with its cheap cost. Hell, you can even skip the sensor directly and just put one once every 20 balloon to keep them guessing.
Think this way, you WANT it to be shot down unlike satellite. It is cheap enough that whatever you use to kill it it will cost more. What about rational choice of ignoring it because its job is redundant with satellite? American cannot politically ignore it, it is already proven.
Most importantly it offers a harmless(militarily) way to provoke American regime. Having a Chinese balloon let opposition mock the party in charge, so in actuality the party in charge hate it more than something as big as dedollarization. Not handling the balloon can cost an election. Dedollarize? Next guy's problem. It is a perfect counterplay to the Taiwan visits of threatening American political prestige so they think twice. All the same time it has zero escalatory risk militarily and gain you leverage for negotiation.
So here is a new line of thought: aggressively contain American provocation through abusing its political system; how to make American leaders fear you without military escalation.
Bonus point: make American paranoid enough to design weaponry to target balloons. It may make this tactic obsolete but the tactic would have paid itself 100 fold.
