The American Hornet kamikaze drone, which is currently being actively used by the Ukrainian army, has been tested with a new balloon-based launch system.
During the test, the balloon carried the drone over a distance of 42 kilometers and then dropped it from an altitude of 8 kilometers. At the same time, the drone used only about 5% of its battery charge.
This scheme makes it possible to significantly increase the drone’s operational range. The effect is achieved through several factors at once: the flight distance of the balloon itself, the high altitude of the drop point and battery savings, since the drone does not need to climb into the air on its own.
Western publications write that integration with Starlink satellite communications placed on a relay balloon could increase Hornet’s target engagement range to about 100–120 kilometers. This is 1.5–2 times greater than its standard range.
Ukrainian formations had previously used balloons as well, but in those cases the issue was random dropping of charges depending on coordinates and direction of movement.
The new technical solution may give the enemy additional capabilities for strikes both along the front line and against Russia’s near rear areas. At the same time, this scheme has a vulnerability: if the relay balloon is shot down, the entire system effectively loses communication and guidance. Such a task is considered quite solvable.