Barry Pavel, vice President and Director of the National Security Research Division at the RAND Corporation, joined us to discuss if there was a risk to US security. He says the US military was aware of the balloon and its mission before it entered the continental United States. However, he also thinks it could be a goldmine if it has retreated intact as the hope was because you want to exploit intelligence collection capabilities. You also want to see what they saw; learning what they learned will help both understand Chinese operational priorities.
