Russia uses balloon nets to protect refineries from Ukrainian drones

Application of outdated technologies against modern UAVs

For Russian occupiers, protecting their own oil refineries is a priority task, as Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles regularly strike them. To strengthen defence, Moscow has decided to implement balloon obstacles.

Defense Express reports this.

How the system works

The obstacle structure consists of two small balloons between which a net of thin cables is stretched. Drones approaching critical facilities are supposed to become entangled in or destroyed by this net.

However, such a system has a critical flaw: drones can simply fly over the net to hit the target. To prevent this, developers created a mechanism that, based on radar data, determines the UAV's flight altitude and autonomously adjusts the height of the obstacle itself.

Doubts about effectiveness

It remains unclear whether the system can change altitude fast enough to intercept a manoeuvring drone. Moreover, if several drones attack from different altitudes, a single net cannot stop all targets simultaneously.

The strength of the structure also raises doubts. During testing, the Russians used a small, almost toy-like drone that does not match the dimensions of even the smallest Ukrainian long-range UAVs. Testing on larger drones, which fly at speeds of several hundred kilometres per hour and weigh several hundred kilograms, has not been conducted.

Limitations and historical context

An additional problem is bad weather. Strong winds can simply tear the balloon obstacles from their place, rendering them unusable.

Currently, there are several parallel projects for such systems in the Russian Federation, but none of them has shown success and remains only at the development stage.

The use of such barriers recalls practices from World War I, when balloon obstacles were first applied, and later they became widespread during World War II. For example, in the United Kingdom, they were used to protect London from German V-1 cruise missiles. However, throughout the period of operation of such systems, only 5% of all launched missiles were intercepted.