Ukrainians have come up with a way to increase the range of the American-made Hornet kamikaze drone, which already has a range of approximately 120 km. The new system is currently being tested. Ukrainian specialists have come up with the idea of attaching Hornet kamikaze drones to a balloon and sending them to the launch site. The balloon is said to deliver the drone up to 42 km away, after which it is released. The drone's battery remains virtually intact, depleting no more than 5%. Thus, a Hornet kamikaze drone dropped from an altitude of 8 km significantly increases its target engagement range.

This specific method of launching a drone significantly increases its range of use in three ways: by increasing the balloon's flight range, by increasing the drone's drop altitude, and by preserving its battery's capacity.

Potentially, in the future, once this system is fully developed, this drone with an installed Starlink terminal will be able to hit targets at a range 1.5-2 times greater than that stated by the developer.

The Hornet kamikaze drone was developed by the American company Swift Beat LLC, which produces drones for Kyiv. It is an aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a warhead weighing 4-5 kg (estimates vary), capable of reaching speeds of up to 200 km/h and a range of 100 to 145 km (precise figures are unknown). The drone is equipped with a target acquisition system with elements of artificial intelligence.

Russian media

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[–] Kowowow@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago (5 children)

I wonder if it's possible to make stealth balloons that are as invisible on every spectrum as possible and float to major targets deeper in

[–] froh42@lemmy.world 4 points 15 hours ago

The other way round. Make them very very very visible on radar. Ballons are cheap, just use hundreds and make 90% just decoys.

[–] rockerface@lemmy.cafe 2 points 1 day ago

They can just deploy the laser monkey to deal with them, not really worth it

[–] blueworld@piefed.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm not sure it's necessary as the RCS on this in float is less than 0.1 m2 and given it loves with the air mass at 8km it's likely going to be filtered out by the Moving Target Indication filter. Also at 8km (26k ft) it is outside the range of a Repeynik Russian counter-UAV radar (5 km altitude limit, at 10km range).

They might get it when it is in powered flight mode and comes down, but still might be interesting.

[–] Kowowow@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

Maybe if they built them right they could act as air deterrent for anything like a jet that moves real fast and costs a lot, if it had something kind of like caltrops on its lifting rope you wouldn't want to run into them and might not be able to see them easily if it's cloudy or foggy

[–] bluGill@fedia.io 2 points 1 day ago

unlikely - even if the balloon is, the electronics and explosives are not.

[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Probably easier to overwhelm detection than to evade it

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

For every balloon with a drone, send 100 with a washing machine. The orcs like those.

[–] froh42@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago