Latest news with #Aerobavovna
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ukraine is using helium-filled balloons to extend the range of its attack drones
Aerobavovna, a Ukrainian startup, is making helium-filled balloons to aid Ukraine's drone attacks. Its balloons help to keep drones on the grid when they're on the ground or flying low. Aerobavovna's CEO told BI that 50 aerostats are deployed along the frontline. Against the backdrop of Ukraine's drone-packed skies, one startup is offering a surprisingly low-tech solution to a modern problem. Aerobavovna, which was founded in 2023, is supplying Ukraine's military with tethered, helium-filled balloons equipped with airborne radio repeaters, extending the range and effectiveness of the country's drones. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has been defined by drone warfare, but drone operators have faced a number of challenges, including line-of-sight obstacles, which can cause drones to lose contact if radio signals are disrupted, and electronic warfare systems, which can jam communications. That's where Aerobavovna comes in. The company's aerostats are designed for surveillance, communication, and first-person-view (FPV) drone signal transmission, and help establish stable communication signals in the battlefield's tricky conditions. Fitted with antennas and radio repeaters, Aerobavovna's aerostats anchor high over the battlefield to help Ukrainian drones continue operating in spite of obstacles and to maintain comms over much greater distances. You need "some kind of airborne radio repeater that allows drones to fly closer to the ground," Yuriy Vysoven, Aerobavovna's CEO, told Business Insider. "For ground drones, it's crucial because their ground-to-ground signal would only reach the first hill; beyond that, you lose direct line of sight and, consequently, the connection," he said, adding that about 50 balloons were deployed "all around the front line" in Ukraine. While aerostats aren't new technology, Aerobavovna's products have been designed to meet the demands of the modern battlefield, allowing for rapid deployment times. Aerobavovna's balloons, which the firm says can be deployed in five to 25 minutes, are made with lightweight polymers and can remain airborne for up to seven days. They can lift repeater systems up to a height of 1 km (about 0.6 miles) and carry a payload of up to 25 kg (around 55 lbs), the company said. The company, which says it produces around 10 to 20 balloons per month, recently announced that it had developed a new aerostat capable of carrying more advanced equipment. In an interview with the Ukrainian outlet Militarnyi, engineers from the company said they had created a new model that can hold a payload of up to 66 lbs, enabling it to carry more powerful equipment such as electronic warfare systems. While the company has found success supplying tethered aerostats to the Ukrainian military, it continues to grapple with technical and structural hurdles as it scales. One persistent challenge is maintaining stability and precision in airborne conditions, especially critical for payloads like FPV drone radio repeaters, which require highly accurate antenna positioning. "Stability is a big problem," Vysoven said. "For FPV drone radio repeaters, you need to position the antennas really, really precisely," but wind and turbulence make that very hard. Funding also remains a major constraint. Despite strong demand and a battlefield-proven product, capital is scarce for Ukrainian hardware startups. Vysoven said the company has received investment offers in the range of $40 million, but considers that far below what's needed and called that figure "a shame." "In California, you can raise that with just a pitch deck and a latte. I have a real product, 30 engineers building it, and it's already deployed," he said. "And we still struggle to raise enough to scale," he added. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
24-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Ukraine is using helium-filled balloons to extend the range of its attack drones
Against the backdrop of Ukraine's drone-packed skies, one startup is offering a surprisingly low-tech solution to a modern problem. Aerobavovna, which was founded in 2023, is supplying Ukraine's military with tethered, helium-filled balloons equipped with airborne radio repeaters, extending the range and effectiveness of the country's drones. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has been defined by drone warfare, but drone operators have faced a number of challenges, including line-of-sight obstacles, which can cause drones to lose contact if radio signals are disrupted, and electronic warfare systems, which can jam communications. That's where Aerobavovna comes in. The company's aerostats are designed for surveillance, communication, and first-person-view (FPV) drone signal transmission, and help establish stable communication signals in the battlefield's tricky conditions. Fitted with antennas and radio repeaters, Aerobavovna's aerostats anchor high over the battlefield to help Ukrainian drones continue operating in spite of obstacles and to maintain comms over much greater distances. You need "some kind of airborne radio repeater that allows drones to fly closer to the ground," Yuriy Vysoven, Aerobavovna's CEO, told Business Insider. "For ground drones, it's crucial because their ground-to-ground signal would only reach the first hill; beyond that, you lose direct line of sight and, consequently, the connection," he said, adding that about 50 balloons were deployed "all around the front line" in Ukraine. While aerostats aren't new technology, Aerobavovna's products have been designed to meet the demands of the modern battlefield, allowing for rapid deployment times. Aerobavovna's balloons, which the firm says can be deployed in five to 25 minutes, are made with lightweight polymers and can remain airborne for up to seven days. They can lift repeater systems up to a height of 1 km (about 0.6 miles) and carry a payload of up to 25 kg (around 55 lbs), the company said. The company, which says it produces around 10 to 20 balloons per month, recently announced that it had developed a new aerostat capable of carrying more advanced equipment. In an interview with the Ukrainian outlet Militarnyi, engineers from the company said they had created a new model that can hold a payload of up to 66 lbs, enabling it to carry more powerful equipment such as electronic warfare systems. While the company has found success supplying tethered aerostats to the Ukrainian military, it continues to grapple with technical and structural hurdles as it scales. One persistent challenge is maintaining stability and precision in airborne conditions, especially critical for payloads like FPV drone radio repeaters, which require highly accurate antenna positioning. "Stability is a big problem," Vysoven said. "For FPV drone radio repeaters, you need to position the antennas really, really precisely," but wind and turbulence make that very hard. Funding also remains a major constraint. Despite strong demand and a battlefield-proven product, capital is scarce for Ukrainian hardware startups. Vysoven said the company has received investment offers in the range of $40 million, but considers that far below what's needed and called that figure "a shame." "In California, you can raise that with just a pitch deck and a latte. I have a real product, 30 engineers building it, and it's already deployed," he said. "And we still struggle to raise enough to scale," he added.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
Ukrainian companies Himera and Aerobavovna test B1 repeater on a balloon
Ukrainian communications systems manufacturer Himera Radios and the Aerobavovna project have jointly conducted tests in which the B1 autonomous repeater was lifted to an altitude of 500 and 800 metres using a balloon system. Source: Himera radios on Facebook Quote from Himera Radios: "This solution gives the army something that is often lacking on the battlefield – stable communication even in the most difficult conditions: in urban areas, mountains, or in areas where it is impossible to install classic repeaters." Details: The manufacturer explained that raising the repeater via a balloon gives a significant increase in radio range and, therefore, in communication coverage. The company said that the test confirmed a range of 32 kilometres. The deployment time was 10 minutes. "Encrypted communication can last up to 14 days without recharging or lowering the balloon. The minimum benefit is doubling the coverage radius; the maximum is creating new opportunities for command, coordination and saving lives," Himera Radios added. It also clarified that the team is already improving the B1 repeater based on the test results. Background: Recently, it was reported that the Ukrainian project Aerobavovna has already deployed dozens of small tethered balloons equipped with antennas, radio repeaters, and drone detectors. The balloons allow kamikaze drones and reconnaissance UAVs to operate over longer distances and help Ukrainian forces detect Russian ground control stations. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Yahoo
Balloon-Launched Drone To Intercept Long Range Kamikaze Drones Emerges In Ukraine
Pictures have appeared on social media showing work in Ukraine to turn a tethered aerostat – what is more colloquially called a balloon – into an elevated platform for launching kamikaze drones at incoming long-range one-way attack drones. This follows the emergence last year of a sensor system designed to detect and locate enemy drone operators mounted on the same type of aerostat. The pictures of the balloon-based kamikaze drone launcher, seen in the post on X below, have been circulating online since earlier today. It is unclear to what degree the aerostat's manufacturer, Ukrainian startup Aerobavovna, is involved in this project, which is not mentioned on the company's website or its channel on the Telegram social media network at the time of writing. The aforementioned aerostat-mounted counter-drone sensor system was developed and rolled out by a separate Ukrainian firm, Kvertus. TWZ has reached out to Aerobavovna for more information. The Ukrainian company Aero Bavovna is developing an aerostat system to intercept Russian 'Shahed' balloon will carry an FPV fixed wing kamikaze ready to be dropped when a Shahed is detected by an infrared camera. — Roy (@GrandpaRoy2) March 12, 2025 From the images that emerged so far, the system as it currently exists includes a launcher for a single fixed-wing kamikaze drone 'interceptor,' as well as a sensor array suspended from the underside of the aerostat and other equipment. The system is designed to attempt an intercept 'after detecting long-range kamikaze UAVs [uncrewed aerial vehicles] via an IR [infrared] camera,' according to a machine translation of a post on the @infomil_live Telegram channel, but this is unconfirmed. Other details about the system, including what its full sensor suite consists of, what level of automation it has when it comes to detecting threats and/or attempting intercepts, and what roles any human operators play in its employment are unknown. In general, elevating any sensor system helps provide a better line-of-sight field of view toward the horizon and improved 'look-down' coverage. A higher perch provides similar benefits for signal relay and electronic warfare suites. Aerobavovna currently advertises its aerostats as suitable for surveillance, general communications, and acting as signal relays for first-person view (FPV) kamikaze drones. The use of aerostats and other lighter-than-air craft as elevated sensor nodes, and ones designed specifically to spot and track incoming threats, is hardly new. The U.S. Army's abortive Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS) program is one of the best known examples. Other aerostat-based sensor systems have been and continue to be in service in the United States and other countries globally. The continued use of balloons for intelligence-gathering purposes was notably thrust back into the public consciousness after the shootdown of a Chinese spy balloon, as well as three still-unidentified objects, in and around U.S. and Canadian airspace in February 2023. There has also been something of a resurgence in interest in using lighter-than-air platforms for early warning and general surveillance in recent years, including Poland's plan to deploy a line of aerostat-based Airspace and Surface Radar Reconnaissance (ARSS) systems. This has been driven in part by Russia's extensive use of both long-range one-way attack drones and cruise missiles – relatively small and low-flying threats that underscore the value of elevated 'look-down' sensor capabilities – in its ongoing war against Ukraine. Both sides in the conflict make regular use of various types of kamikaze drones, as well as ones capable of dropping small munitions, on and around the front lines, as well. As TWZ routinely points out, the threats posed by drones are not new and continue to grow in scale and scope, thanks now in part to advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, both on and off traditional battlefields around the world. The idea of using balloons, airships, and other lighter-than-air platforms to launch drones, small munitions, and other payloads, is also not new. TWZ previously published an in-depth feature on Chinese work on balloon-launched drone swarms, which also touched on similar U.S. military efforts, which you can find here. The use of various types of drones to try to intercept other uncrewed threats, as well as helicopters, has also become a commonplace feature of the ongoing fighting in Ukraine. Ukrainian FPV drone attacks and destroys Russia's ZALA ISR UAV. — Samuel Bendett (@sambendett) June 12, 2024 Mi-28N(M) smacked by Ukrainian AA FPV over Kursk, Russia — Cᴀʟɪʙʀᴇ Oʙsᴄᴜʀᴀ (@CalibreObscura) August 7, 2024 If the aerostat-mounted drone interceptor system works, it could offer a useful addition to Ukraine's defensive arsenal that could be readily deployed across the country. It might also be possible to tie in the balloon-based systems with other Ukrainian counter-drone and air defense capabilities, such as the country's low-cost acoustic sensor network consisting of thousands of microphones to detect incoming drones. If the interceptor-armed aerostats are also relatively low cost and low footprint, they could be even more valuable for supplementing the Ukrainian military's other counter-drone capabilities and further reducing the strain on higher-end and prized air defense systems, especially those supplied by the West. Recent disruptions in U.S. military assistance have raised particular questions about Ukraine's air defense capabilities and overall capacity in the absence of such support. Much remains to be learned about the counter-drone interceptor system utilizing the Aerobavovna aerostat. Its appearance does underscore the continually expanding efforts in Ukraine to address the very serious threats posed by kamikaze drones on and off the front lines. Contact the author: joe@
