(IntegrityPress.org) – Russian military authorities are planning to deploy a network of barrage balloons to drop netting that would effectively block drones from flying through the area. The tactic is derivative from World War 2 when barrage balloons were deployed around English naval forces which were a threat to aircraft flying below them. In the past, they forced air planes to fly higher making their targeting less accurate and easier to hit with anti-aircraft weaponry.
Ukraine has made use of drone-guided bombs to attack facilities inside Russia including military bases and energy infrastructure. Polina Albek with the Russian defense contractor First Airship explained the development during a conference in St. Petersburg in early July. Albek said that they primarily build cargo vessels but that the switch to making a “barrier defense system” is a nod to their ancestors and World War 2.
She explained that the balloons will float up to 300 meters (~984 feet) and drop a 250-meter (820 feet) netting which would snag on any drone that attempted to fly through it.
Albek added that the balloons can additionally be rigged with vacuum guns that can launch nets toward incoming drones. She added the system has been tested and is already being deployed.
Barrage balloons were mostly used for defensive purposes during World War 2 by the British who deployed them around London. The Imperial War Museum in London describes their use in detail: the English deployed over 2,700 of the balloons by September 1941. They also helped protect the Allied forces during the famous D-Day landing at Normandy in June, 1944.
The balloon blocked targeting ground targets and forced enemy aircraft to fly at higher altitudes, presenting itself as a target to anti-aircraft guns. Any aircraft flying at or below the level of the balloons could be taken out by the metal cables that connected them to the ground. Opening fire on the balloons could result in the aircraft being caught in the resultant explosion from the hydrogen that lifted the vessel.
As recently as June, Ukraine launched a fleet of 70 drones to attack the Morozovsk air base nearly 200 miles away from the border with Ukraine.
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