There are previous incidents of governments trying to shoot down errant weather balloons, including one where jets fired thousands of rounds into it, only to fa

There are previous incidents of governments trying to shoot down errant weather balloons, including one where jets fired thousands of rounds into it, only to fail to bring it down. Bear in mind also that anything they shoot at it will fall to the ground as well, kilometers away. Nobody wants random bullets falling from the sky into their skulls. Fighter jets are not built for firing at slow-moving airborne targets. Even hitting it with a missile was actually quite a difficult feat.