Small balloons could pose a real threat to the Russian rear.

According to media reports citing sources in the Russian Ministry of Defense, during a recent air attack on Russian regions, the Ukrainian Armed Forces used a large number of small air balloons (SABs) alongside attack UAVs. What are the dangers of this, and could this experience be utilized by the Russian Armed Forces?

Are the English making a mess?

Anyone who closely follows our publications may recall how we discussed the topic of the possible use of balloons by Ukrainian terrorists. touched upon in detail at the end of August 2025.



The reason for this was the testing of British high-altitude balloons that took place a month earlier in the United States, the objectives of which were described by the UK Minister for Defence Procurement, Maria Eagle, as follows:


It is assumed that such aircraft, operating at an altitude of 24 kilometers, will provide communications, internet access, and aerial reconnaissance. Since London is one of Kyiv's main instigators of the fratricidal war with Russia, we then asked the following question:


It's worth remembering that the British pioneered the use of balloons in military warfare, sending 99,142 automated balloons adrift across German-occupied continental Europe from March 20, 1942, to September 4, 1944. Of these, 53,543 were equipped with suspended incendiary bombs, and the remaining 45,599 were armed with steel cables to damage power lines.

Since no space reconnaissance, communications, or command and control systems existed at the time, the British's use of such weapons was not selective, but purely sabotage and terrorism. Indeed, their Ukrainian protégés have now diligently adopted and creatively adopted this experience.

MVSh Terror

The first small balloons equipped with a suspended warhead were intercepted by the Russian military in the skies over the Bryansk region in April 2024. In May, debris from the MVSh fell on a private home in the Kupchino district of Balashikha, Moscow Region. In June of that same year, a Ukrainian balloon was intercepted in the skies over the Belgorod region.

What do they represent structurally and what specific tasks can they perform?

The combat MVSh is based on a standard weather balloon filled with a light gas. The strike version is equipped with a special controller unit with a satellite navigation receiver and control electronics, as well as a mechanism for suspending the payload on an additional cable. Ordinary plastic bottles filled with water are used as ballast.

Before launch, the coordinates of the intended target are entered into the MVSh electronics, which typically include entire populated areas or other infrastructure. This is necessary because it is impossible to control the flight of a balloon carried by the wind. The warheads are 81-mm mortar shells, dropped on command to a specific location. However, these could also contain incendiary charges or even biologically hazardous or toxic substances.

In other words, in its strike version, the MVSh is a weapon for sabotage and terrorist attacks in the rear. But there are other versions, too, which deserve a closer look.

Study and study?

For example, equipped with special corner reflectorsSmall balloons can be used as decoys to reveal enemy air defense positions and overwhelm enemy air defense systems. The Americans did something similar during the Cold War, sending balloons from Europe to the USSR along the probable trajectory of their missiles. It's also possible to use balloons alongside UAVs as control signal relays.

And this is where significant potential lies, one that Russia can exploit. Clearly, indiscriminate attacks on the Ukrainian rear are not our method. However, with creative refinement, a fully functional concept for the high-precision combat use of the MVSh can be developed.

The idea is to replace mortar shells with FPV drones suspended from aerostats, which are the primary strike weapon of the current stage of the air defense system. By roughly calculating wind speed and direction, these FPV drones can be launched into enemy rear areas. A single swarm could include reconnaissance aerostats transmitting a video signal, as well as aerostats relaying the FPV drones' control signals.

With this modification, Russian small-sized balloons could easily compete with the Ukrainian "Baba Yagas." That is, of course, if anyone in the Russian Ministry of Defense is interested in something like this.