Balloons in T2k

[Raellus]

Apparently, the Soviet Union developed combat balloons during the early years of the Cold War. I was aware of Imperial Japan's largely unsuccessful attempts to attack the USA with free-floating incendiary device-armed balloons during WW2, and assumed that no other country ever tried to repeat the failed experiment but it turns out I was wrong.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...f-spy-balloons

The article includes photos of a helium generating trucks for filling free balloons. Such a vehicle could make for an unusual T2k encounter.

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[kato13]

Originally Posted by Raellus

helium generating trucks-

Hydrogen generating, from the article. Only fission (including spontaneous), fusion or the "Big Bang" can generate helium.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by kato13

Hydrogen generating, from the article. Only fission (including spontaneous), fusion or the "Big Bang" can generate helium.

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[Homer]

One factoid about JLENS, PTDSS, and other US (and probably foreign) modern tethered aerostats is they are pressurized to the ambient pressure at their operating altitude. This makes them less vulnerable to battle damage (SAF, frag, etc) by minimizing loss of buoyancy. It also means their ground sites are normally collocated with a Field Artillery Met section or USAF Combat Weather.

[bobcat]

i could also see barrage balloons being brought back since they do work against low altitude aircraft/helicopters. especially anti-aircraft munitions start to dry up. it's easier to make a bunch of steel cable and mylar ballons than a surface to air missile.

[Homer]

Originally Posted by bobcat

i could also see barrage balloons being brought back since they do work against low altitude aircraft/helicopters.

And they can also be used as obstacles by shaping air avenues of approach to either deny routes or altitude bands turning aircraft into preplanned air defense engagement areas where massed AAA or older generation SAMs can be more effective.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Homer

And they can also be used as obstacles by shaping air avenues of approach to either deny routes or altitude bands turning aircraft into preplanned air defense engagement areas where massed AAA or older generation SAMs can be more effective.

That's a really interesting point- one that I'd never considered. Barrage balloons always seemed so quaint and not particularly useful. I'd come to think of them as akin to today's "Cope Cages"- more something to make one feel safer from air attacks rather than actually protecting against them. However, now that you mention it, I'm quite surprised barrage balloons didn't have a resurgence during the Cold War.

Given that most NATO tactical strike aircraft of the late Cold War (namely the Tornado IDS, F-111 Aardvark, and F-15E Strike Eagle) were optimized for low level attacks, barrage balloons could actually be useful when employed in the ways that you mentioned. In addition, I can't imagine that they'd be particularly expensive, especially compared to ground-based active air defense systems. Yeah, now I'm quite surprised the Soviets didn't field them. NATO, on the other hand, has always been too enamored with high tech to go for something so primitive.

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