Balloon-Launched Drone To Intercept Long Range Kamikaze Drones Emerges In Ukraine

Pictures have appeared on social media showing work in Ukraine to turn a tethered aerostat – what is more colloquially called a balloon – into an elevated platform for launching kamikaze drones at incoming long-range one-way attack drones. This follows the emergence last year of a sensor system designed to detect and locate enemy drone operators mounted on the same type of aerostat.

The pictures of the balloon-based kamikaze drone launcher, seen in the post on X below, have been circulating online since earlier today. It is unclear to what degree the aerostat’s manufacturer, Ukrainian startup Aerobavovna, is involved in this project, which is not mentioned on the company’s website or its channel on the Telegram social media network at the time of writing.

The aforementioned aerostat-mounted counter-drone sensor system was developed and rolled out by a separate Ukrainian firm, Kvertus. TWZ has reached out to Aerobavovna for more information.

From the images that emerged so far, the system as it currently exists includes a launcher for a single fixed-wing kamikaze drone ‘interceptor,’ as well as a sensor array suspended from the underside of the aerostat and other equipment. The system is designed to attempt an intercept “after detecting long-range kamikaze UAVs [uncrewed aerial vehicles] via an IR [infrared] camera,” according to a machine translation of a post on the @infomil_live Telegram channel, but this is unconfirmed.

Other details about the system, including what its full sensor suite consists of, what level of automation it has when it comes to detecting threats and/or attempting intercepts, and what roles any human operators play in its employment are unknown.

In general, elevating any sensor system helps provide a better line-of-sight field of view toward the horizon and improved ‘look-down’ coverage. A higher perch provides similar benefits for signal relay and electronic warfare suites. Aerobavovna currently advertises its aerostats as suitable for surveillance, general communications, and acting as signal relays for first-person view (FPV) kamikaze drones.

The use of aerostats and other lighter-than-air craft as elevated sensor nodes, and ones designed specifically to spot and track incoming threats, is hardly new. The U.S. Army’s abortive Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS) program is one of the best known examples. Other aerostat-based sensor systems have been and continue to be in service in the United States and other countries globally. The continued use of balloons for intelligence-gathering purposes was notably thrust back into the public consciousness after the shootdown of a Chinese spy balloon, as well as three still-unidentified objects, in and around U.S. and Canadian airspace in February 2023.

A picture taken from the cockpit of a US Air Force U-2 spy plane of the Chinese spy balloon that was ultimately shot down in February 2023. USAF

There has also been something of a resurgence in interest in using lighter-than-air platforms for early warning and general surveillance in recent years, including Poland’s plan to deploy a line of aerostat-based Airspace and Surface Radar Reconnaissance (ARSS) systems. This has been driven in part by Russia’s extensive use of both long-range one-way attack drones and cruise missiles – relatively small and low-flying threats that underscore the value of elevated ‘look-down’ sensor capabilities – in its ongoing war against Ukraine. Both sides in the conflict make regular use of various types of kamikaze drones, as well as ones capable of dropping small munitions, on and around the front lines, as well. As TWZ routinely points out, the threats posed by drones are not new and continue to grow in scale and scope, thanks now in part to advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, both on and off traditional battlefields around the world.

The idea of using balloons, airships, and other lighter-than-air platforms to launch drones, small munitions, and other payloads, is also not new. TWZ previously published an in-depth feature on Chinese work on balloon-launched drone swarms, which also touched on similar U.S. military efforts, which you can find here.

A graphic depicting, in broad strokes, a concept for deploying drones via high-altitude balloon and then using a satellite to relay information to a control node. Chinese Academy of Sciences via International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles

The use of various types of drones to try to intercept other uncrewed threats, as well as helicopters, has also become a commonplace feature of the ongoing fighting in Ukraine.

If the aerostat-mounted drone interceptor system works, it could offer a useful addition to Ukraine’s defensive arsenal that could be readily deployed across the country. It might also be possible to tie in the balloon-based systems with other Ukrainian counter-drone and air defense capabilities, such as the country’s low-cost acoustic sensor network consisting of thousands of microphones to detect incoming drones.

If the interceptor-armed aerostats are also relatively low cost and low footprint, they could be even more valuable for supplementing the Ukrainian military’s other counter-drone capabilities and further reducing the strain on higher-end and prized air defense systems, especially those supplied by the West. Recent disruptions in U.S. military assistance have raised particular questions about Ukraine’s air defense capabilities and overall capacity in the absence of such support.

Much remains to be learned about the counter-drone interceptor system utilizing the Aerobavovna aerostat. Its appearance does underscore the continually expanding efforts in Ukraine to address the very serious threats posed by kamikaze drones on and off the front lines.

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