WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 182, "Ao," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
In the Boruto manga, it was unclear why Jigen would sanction an automated airship without his soldiers to transport Kawaki for a military field test. He's always claimed the Vessel has been important to his mission, and luckily, we got the prelude to this story in the anime which revealed Victor duped him as he wanted to steal Kara's prize for himself.
Episode 182 of the Boruto anime now has Jigen elaborating on this airship plot, and sadly, the disappearance of the item and Jigen's rationale for allowing the situation to occur in the first place makes him look like a total idiot.
Kawaki holds immense power. Seeing as Victor and Deepa already screwed up missions for him in the past, it was odd seeing him allow Victor's blimp to carry the body. It seemed like Jigen had trust and faith in Victor, wanting to believe in the best in him, which would have made a perfect excuse for why he let it happen. The thing is, as Jigen tells his chief scientist Amado, he suspected there was a spy within ranks but couldn't confirm it, so this was all to root them out. Little did he know he'd lose Kawaki.
This is very unintelligent and shows poor leadership. Jigen could have used a decoy as he has many clones so even if it were stolen or the ship went down due to treachery and betrayal, he'd still have the original Vessel. Additionally, he'd now have a trail to track the real traitor down. If shinobi from Konoha raided the airship too and got the Vessel, it wouldn't be the real deal. Jigen could have saved himself a lot of problems. Why did he risk using the real body if this was all a test where so many things could have gone wrong?
This incompetence endangered his entire plan to rule the world, and it's weird because he keeps harping on how much he cherishes the Vessel. Not even having his main assassin Koji Kashin or Amado properly track the plane in person says it all. There's just no reason to put the real Vessel on the line because it robs Kara of their trump card and basically lets their secret weapon out into the open.
Interestingly, while Jigen didn't think Victor would be the traitor, Koji showed up after the accident and killed Victor, so the boss had to have known Victor was shady. The timing of Victor showing up at the base and offering his airship is just too coincidental, so Jigen missed obvious red flags. It's why when he tells Amado there's another spy in the camp. To find that person, Amado's skeptical as he knows his boss is a poor judge of character who seems to be winging it.
