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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   965 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 20, 2025

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Remember that Chinese hot air balloon over America? Why isn’t similar technology being used in Russian / Ukraine war? Seems like you could fill one up with drones that then free fall out and use guidance to hit locations in the interior of the country. Wouldn’t the weapons used to destroy something 70k feet in the air be considerably more expensive than the production of decoy balloons?

One obvious point seems to be that a a Geran-2 weights 200kg, 60kg of which is the warhead. When it's launched in a wave of several hundred, at night and accompanied by decoys, it currently does OK at reaching its target.

Adding hundreds of balloons to this operation (I don't think you'd want more than 2 drones per balloon, that's a large payload already for a lighter-than-air vehicle) is unlikely to decrease the cost per hit. Especially when compared to just doubling Geran-2 production again.

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