>

Why can't a high-power laser be used? There are consumer-grade blue lasers that can pop balloons from a pretty significant range with relative ease. I'd imagine the government has significantly higher-power devices available- capable of doing the same thing from much further away and the cost of operating a laser would likely be much cheaper than sending multi-million dollar missiles at them.
Lot of off course weather balloons. >

It’s a global weather survey. >

Globally surveying weather or not they can spy on everyone everywhere all at once? >

Gotta globally survey the weather above the US’s ICBMs of course >

Can't forget it drifting over Lake City Army Ammunition Plant the very next day. >

Be refreshing if they just came out and admitted how many of these so called 'weather balloons' were actually missing. >

But also, if they really were just weather balloons, why not inform all countries where they are, not wait for them to be discovered? >

I bet there are millionaires who would pay for someone to fly them up to let them shoot at it.