US plans to use balloons to attack space infrastructure
According to the Breaking Defence portal, the US Army is developing plans to use extremely high-flying balloons to carry and launch drones designed to disrupt or destroy enemy space assets on the ground, like jammers or satellite control stations, TASS reports
It is noted that this concept was presented by Col. Donald Brooks, the Commander of the US Army’s 1st Space Brigade.
According to him, multi-form factor balloons will operate at various altitudes and perform several types of tasks, making them more difficult for the enemy to detect and neutralise. He said this directly supports the Army and Defence Department efforts to improve resilience and make the forces more lethal.
It is planned that the balloons will aid in ‘deep sensing and support long-range precision fires, enable navigation warfare, provide network extension via voice and data, enable assured access to PNT (position navigation and timing) and have both lethal and non-lethal payloads’.
