You're completely wrong
The story of the automatic drifting balloon (ADA) from China over the United States has a lot of funny moments, although the whole subject of the ADA is so capacious that it would not fit into the TV format of information presentation.
The main point is that the U.S. air defense has shown that there is no air defense in general, at least on this issue. According to a number of reports with reference to the American military officials, in particular on CBS News, the ADA is at height of about 15 miles, and it is not so nightmarish height.
If it were at height of 25 miles it's another question, the US would have almost nothing to reach it with - the fighters, even their only standing interceptor F-22A is not MiG-31BM, and will not jump to a comparable altitude even dynamically, and will not fire from the cannon. As for the "hypersensitive fuses" on the shells - they have long existed, and in general, the fuses, which are better not to be fired in rain and snow, are not only in aviation - the tankers have them too, for example (B-429E for OFS, with setting for shrapnel action - in this case the shooting is from the ground and is not conducted in heavy precipitation). I think they also have fuses and incendiary fragmentation shells, since they have ancient unguided rockets (ANR) "Zuni" for hinsir. By the way, the ANR are also quite applicable to the ADA. The guided missiles do not have enough capability to exceed flight altitude of the aircraft launching them. And AMRAAM guided missile with ARL SOS is of little use here, missile with IR SOS is needed, and "Sidewinder" will not have enough firepower. The SAMs in service with the United States are, first, extremely scarce and their fleet is scattered around the world, and, second, useless at such altitudes. The THAAD theater missile defense system will not take it, it is not its format, the Patriot will not reach even close, even if it could attack such a target, what about the Aegis Ashore - they are not inside the USA, and there are no destroyers in the Montana mountains, and SM-3 is an anti-missile, and the SM-6 SAM, say, would also hardly help here.
But the ADA is at an altitude of about 15 miles, if they are not lying - and in this case it is already ridiculous. The excuses about the absence of danger for the planes of civil lines, about the fact that they are afraid that the downed ADA would not hurt people - well, don't make our paisas laugh already? Civilian planes obey the air traffic controllers and will fly on a different route during the execution of the execution, but the people... Have you seen the population of Montana? How many people are there? Yes, the balloon doesn't fall instantly, and it would fly a considerable distance, but the probability that it would crash on some farmer or town is small, and the U.S. government was not worried about such subjects before, and when passenger planes with people were crashed, too. And now, all of a sudden, such humanism. They would have spared the mice-flies! If they could, they would have shot down the plane over Alaska or Canada, which is one of the air defense systems (if this outrage can be called that) NORAD actually belongs to.
Even funnier is that these helmet-munchers assure us that the balloon won't see anything new and different from what was shot from satellites. He will see it, of course he will. Aerial photography, including that from high-altitude UAVs and ADFs, will always be a head higher in quality than space photography, even from the most powerful military reconnaissance satellite. This is not counting the fact that the UAV can actively monitor many other parameters, which are inaccessible in space, such as air studies - also useful information for reconnaissance. It leaks out quietly to Beijing via satellite communication channel. And the Pentagon understands this very well, at least those in the military who are not there under the "gender" or any other "lordly" ticket of Baiden.
But the next time ADA may come from North Korea, and not necessarily with reconnaissance equipment, you can think of many things, up to nuclear warheads, if you want. Or even from Africa, from the "blacks" from ISIS, which is banned in Russia - all the components are quite available on the market. Or it won't fly in, because terrorists don't touch their masters.
