1. Strategic bombing from balloons? Ukraine is using low-cost balloon technology combined with modern electronics to bomb Russia. A few of these balloons crashed thus providing a better look. Note that the following photos are a mix from different crashes. t.me/azimut_31/375
2. The balloon is a long black cylinder filled with either helium or hydrogen gas. Hydrogen can lift more weight and is much cheaper. The payload is distributed along a string beneath the balloon.
3. This photo gives a better idea of the payload. There is a pop bottle followed by a container holding the controller electronics. Next in line is a tracking device. At the bottom is a munition.
4. The controller is housed in a cylinder that has 3D-printed end caps. The munition is supported by a string that passes through a wire loop. This wire loop is an important part of how this system works.
5. The wire loop is connected to a controller board by two wires. There are three 9V lithium batteries. Both the cylinder and tracker are covered with thermal insulation.
6. A Bluetooth module is the brains of the balloon. This module can enable a relay (via a transistor) to pass current through the wire loop that holds the string for the munition. The loop will become very hot melting or burning through the string thus releasing the munition.
7. The Bluetooth (microcontroller) module looks like a low-cost ESP32-H2-Mini-1 by Espressif. Bluetooth might be used by the ground crew to ensure proper operation during launch, i.e., the controller is powered and the GPS has signal.
8. The GPS module is a model GP1818MK. These are widely available and cost about $20. Cutting off the battery makes no sense and likely wrecked the module.
9. Suspended below the controller was a tracking device.
10. Specifically, it is a Spot Trace made by SPOT (owned by Globalstar). This device sends GPS location data directly to communication satellites. Ukraine would receive this location information at intervals of a few minutes depending on the tracking plan.
11. The munition has a 3D-printed fin that is secured with string and tape.
12. The empty pop bottle is an enigma. Another crashed balloon also had one. Note there is no tracking device on this balloon but there is a controller.
13. Pop bottles have also been seen on Russian balloons. In this case the balloons had radar reflectors and were likely intended to waste Ukraine’s air defenses. t.me/VA_Kyiv/943
14. Here is closer look at the empty pop bottle secured to a Russian balloon. Please comment if you know what these bottles are for.
15. It seems unlikely that Ukraine’s balloons would cause significant damage. They are likely intended as a nuisance for Russia and also provide information for Ukraine’s long-range drone attacks. If shot down by air defence, the tracker will provide the location to Ukraine.
16. One unknown is how high these balloon fly as this would affect their accuracy and vulnerability. Regardless they would be very distracting for Russia’s defences.
If you found this thread interesting, please repost as a quotation. Comments are appreciated.
17. (ps) One question is, why did this balloon crash? A photo of the backside of the controller board may give an answer. Generally, the quality of soldering does not look very good. There is possibly one cold joint and one short. (Ukraine, please do a better job.)
18. (ps) Thanks to @en129 and @nojiri_h for finding out the exact circuit board used for the microcontroller. It is a Beetle ESP32-C3. It comes with an expansion board that is not used in the balloon.
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1. Why is a russian soldier very happy to receive an 8-year-old NanFang 150 cc motorcycle? The answer has a lot to do with #drones and why speed matters.
2. In #Ukraine, armed drones are deployed by the thousands, and constantly attack vehicles & soldiers. Without costly electronic countermeasures, small drones are difficult to defend against.
3. These drones are mostly repurposed hobby-grade toys that were never intended for this application. For combat, they have to carry a heavy munition & heavy battery many km, and then chase down a target. All that weight limits its top speed to about 100 km/h.
1. A russian solder with a machine gun is riding a curious-looking vehicle. What is this? Is it a fancy russian military thing?
2. Turns out the russian soldier is using an electric mobility scooter. These come in various configurations. The russian got lucky as his scooter has the optional golf-cart tires, which will be helpful in a war zone.
3. These scooters are also available in high-visibility colours. Note that this yellow one has the same brace as the russian’s scooter. Top speed is about 45 km/h, which will amuse Ukrainian drone pilots.
1. Ukraine crowd-sourced a multi-role drone called Besomar (a powerful demon). Like many small drones in Ukraine the Besomar was developed at very low cost, i.e., UAH600k (US$15k). Half of the money came from donations and half from government. @sambendett
2. The Besomar is not very big with an approximately 2 m wingspan. It can be launched from a rail or by hand. With current electronics, flight time is 60 minutes and the range (distance from base station) is 30 km.
3. The design is conventional and will be familiar to builders of RC planes. A simple rectangular box-type fuselage is used along with a V-tail and a single rear-mounted motor. The wings are removable but the tail is fixed in place.
1. A number of post have incorrectly labelled this drone as a Ukrainian-made Palyanytsia. In fact this photo almost certainly shows a protype of a Dart 250 drone that is made by the British company Modini.
2. Here is a better view of the Dart 250. Note that Ukraine also has a low-cost fixed-wing drone called a “Dart” that is very different (don’t confuse them).
3. Modini uses very nice carts to transport its drones.
1. A russian soldier surrenders to a #Ukrainian #drone by offering a trade. What is this thing that the russian is offering in exchange for his life? Is this a fair exchange?
2. Here is a better view of the case. It is a russian Thunderstorm electronic warfare system intended to combat drones. The controls are very simple. There are two power switches to enable the transmitters. There is also a switch & indicator for checking the battery voltage.
3. Removing the lid from the battery compartment reveals the underside of the controls. The battery-level board is not protected. This lid is held in place with hardware-store brackets and pop rivets.
1. Ukraine announced that it had tested a long-range “rocket drone” called Palianytsia. Is this weapon, in practice, a cruise missile? This thread is a closer look at this (likely important) weapon.
2. Other than a few simple sketches & animations, Ukraine has released very few details about Palianytsia. The approach used here was to carefully study this public information with the aim of making a CAD drawing. From this drawing, various design aspects are considered.
3. How big is Palianytsia? If it uses an AI-PBS-350 turbojet engine, which is a joint project between PBS (Czech Republic) and Ivchenko-Progress (Ukraine), then the size is easily estimated. This engine weighs 51 kg with a maximum thrust of 3,400 N.