Balloons in T2k

[Raellus]

As with most things military-related, the recent hoopla surrounding the Chinese spy balloon shot down just off the Carolina coast got me trying to make connections with T2k.

First off, high altitude spy balloons were a part of of the Cold War cat-and-mouse game between the USA and USSR. And nuclear-Armageddon preoccupied pop culture. What 1980s kid can forget this little bi-lingual pop nugget?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpu5a0Bl8eY

Apparently, US spy balloons were such a concern that the Soviets designed and built balloon killer planes.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...g-the-cold-war

High altitude spy balloons most likely wouldn't be a feature of the later years of the Twilight War. Even if one or two were still floating around in the upper atmosphere, would data they collect be accessible to the owner-operators on the ground? But, militarized hot air balloons could be.

Hot air balloons were used during the American Civil War as primitive aerial reconnaissance platforms and for artillery spotting. Helium-filled observation balloons were also used during WWI.

Would HAB's make a come back late in the Twilight War? I think yes. The technology really isn't that complicated. Also, optical enhancement devices have improved by leaps and bounds, meaning that HAB's could observe enemy positions from beyond effective small arms range (most if not all MANPADs would have been expended by 2000).

Imagine a militarized balloon c.2000. The balloon itself could be a repurposed civilian model (I'm not sure what a bespoke balloon would be made of c.2000- parachute silk, perhaps?). The basket would be very lightly armored (Kevlar would be good for that). A field telephone wire would run down the tether rope to a relay team on the ground, who could pass intel to HQ. The crew would be equipped with parachutes, in case the OPFOR managed to get close enough to shoot the balloon down.

Have any of you ever used or encountered HAB's in your T2k campaigns? Developed rules for HAB's? Are there any mentions of HAB's in canon*, or articles about them in Challenge Magazine.

*The closest thing that I'm aware of are the blimps in Air Lords of the Ozarks, but that's not the same thing.

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