Russia uses World War II tactics to defend against Ukrainian drone attacks

• Russia plans to use barrage balloons to deter Ukrainian drone attacks.
• The balloons rise up to 300 meters high and drop a 250 meter long net to prevent drones from getting through.
• The tactic was inspired by barrage balloons from World War I and World War II.

Russia is developing a network of barrage balloons to defend against Ukrainian drone attacks, inspired by a tactic used in World Wars I and II.

Speaking at a conference in St. Petersburg this week, Polina Albek, general director of the Russian aerospace company First Airship, which is developing the network, said: “Our main activity is building cargo airships, but today, based on the experience of our ancestors, we have created the ‘Barrier’ defense system,” Russian state news media RIA Novosti reported.

The balloons are designed to rise in a line up to 300 metres (984 feet) high and then drop a 250-metre (820-foot) net designed to stop incoming drones, according to The Telegraph. They have a maximum load capacity of 30 kg (around 66 pounds).

Albek said the balloons could also be fitted with a “vacuum gun” to shoot nets at approaching drones. He added that the system had already been tested and that preliminary orders had been received.

She noted that the developers were inspired by the use of barrage balloons in World War I.

Barrage balloons were first used in World War I, but played a particularly important role in British defence during World War II. According to the Imperial War Museum in London, there were 2,748 barrage balloons in use in Britain in September 1941.

They also played a crucial role in the Allied landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944, as they provided protection to Allied soldiers and ships.

The balloons forced German planes to fly at higher altitudes, making it more difficult to hit their targets and also making them more vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire.

The cables that attached the balloons to the ground could also pose a serious danger to any aircraft attempting to fly through them.

The balloons represented “a vital defensive measure against the (German) Luftwaffe, as the metal cables hanging from them would seriously damage or destroy any aircraft that touched them,” according to a report by the Royal Air Forces Association.

“Attackers attempting to shoot down a balloon could be caught in an explosion of the hydrogen used to launch them into the air,” the report continued.

Since Russia began its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine has continued to attack Russian energy infrastructure and air bases with long-range drone strikes.

Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s defense intelligence service, told The War Zone in June that Ukrainian forces fired 70 drones in an attack on the Morozovsk air base in Russia’s Rostov region, nearly 200 miles from the Ukrainian border.

A security source told Sky News that the Ukrainian attack was part of a “sustained campaign to weaken the Russian air force.”

Also in June, Kyiv said it had hit a valuable Russian Su-57 stealth fighter jet stationed at Akhtubinsk airfield in southern Russia – 580 kilometers from the front line.

In May, Ukraine claimed responsibility for one of its longest drone attacks to date. Officials said a drone flew 1,500 kilometers to attack an oil refinery in Russia.