Howard's backstory reveals he worked with "satellites" for the Navy, and snippets of his diatribes reveal that he thinks alien life has the potential to invade earth.

With the previous iteration of his daughter dead/killed and few options available in the surrounding community, do you think he was crazy enough to unleash a SHTF scenario in the hopes he could snag a replacement at random? Would he be willing to destroy the society that deprived him of his real family in order to fulfill his personal desires?

It also seems possible that the namesake "Cloverfield" has some intimate significance to Howard. It is the name of the private road he lives on... maybe he tagged his satellites with the same name during his career? Maybe its his wife's maiden name or something?