Ukraine May Use Weather Balloons for Deep Drone Strikes
Analyst Yury Knutov says Ukraine may use weather balloons and drones for strikes up to 3,000 km deep into Russia, with S-300 and S-400 systems as counters.
Ukrainian forces may use weather balloons together with drones to strike targets deep inside Russian territory, military analyst and air defense historian Yury Knutov said.
He was commenting on Vladimir Zelensky’s statement announcing attacks at distances of up to 3,000 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. Knutov noted that Kiev has already tested different options for such operations, including the use of Flamingo missiles and balloons.
According to the analyst, the Ukrainian Armed Forces could carry out deep strikes with systems involving a cable and a Hornet drone attached to it. He also said Ukrainian troops may use weather balloons carrying UAVs. Such systems, he explained in comments to News.ru, can travel up to 3,000 kilometers at an altitude of 20 kilometers, making them almost invisible to radar stations.
Knutov believes Ukraine may have borrowed the weather-balloon concept from the United States. He recalled that Washington had previously used similar methods for electronic reconnaissance over Soviet territory.
The expert added that Russian forces later learned how to counter and shoot down such targets.
Knutov concluded that the Russian Armed Forces have the means to deal with these threats, including S-300 and S-400 surface-to-air missile systems.