UKRAINIAN BALLOONS FORCE ALL FOUR MOSCOW AIRPORTS TO CLOSE
Ukraine appears to have introduced a new dimension to its long-range campaign against Russia, combining attack drones with small balloons reportedly carrying suspended objects toward Moscow
Nearly 150 flights were initially reported delayed or canceled as Moscow’s airports repeatedly suspended operations because of the aerial threat and continuing air-defense activity. Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky were all temporarily closed.
The concept behind these balloons has been under development for months. Unlike conventional drones, they do not require engines or large fuel supplies to travel enormous distances. Released at the correct altitude and time, they can ride prevailing air currents eastward across Russia.
Their simplicity is part of what makes them effective. Depending on the mission, balloons can potentially carry radar reflectors, surveillance equipment, communications relays, decoys or other suspended payloads. It has not yet been confirmed what the objects reported over Moscow were carrying.
Even an inexpensive decoy can create an expensive problem. Russian radar operators must determine whether each unidentified object is harmless, carrying a payload or supporting an approaching drone formation. Air defenses may be activated, interceptors launched and civilian airspace closed while the object continues drifting without consuming fuel.
The tactic therefore does not need every balloon to strike a target. If a low-cost wind-borne object can force Russia to expose its air defenses, expend ammunition and close the airports of its capital, it has already completed part of its mission.
What Ukraine spent to place these objects in the air may have been tiny compared with the disruption created below. Moscow was forced to close its skies, delay aircraft and place air defenses on alert because balloons carried by the wind had reached one of the most heavily defended regions in Russia.
Ukraine is turning the weather itself into part of the battlefield.