Are these just hydrogen filled Mylar bags with some thin wire hoops for structure? Small, unpowered, drifting mini-zeppelins? They would only cost the Chinese $100 to make and are costing us 10,000 times that to take down each one with a $1,000,000 AIM-9X missile. The People’s Liberation Army general staff probably haven’t stopped laughing at our expense for a week!
AIM-9X Unit cost
US$381,069.74 (Block II) US$399,500.00 (Block II Plus) US$209,492.75 (training missile) (All as in 2019)
And the northern objects seem to be rigid, according to pilot reports.