Ukraine’s new DART missile could reshape modern warfare. Launched by a stratospheric balloon, this innovative weapon descends from extreme altitude while bypassing electronic warfare systems that disrupt conventional missiles and drones. In this video, we explore how DART works, the centuries-long history of military balloons, its potential advantages and limitations, and why this low-cost system could become a powerful addition to Ukraine’s arsenal. Watch now for the full analysis.
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Ukraine Deploys New DART Balloon Missile
01:04 - History of 100,000 Military Balloon Bombs
04:04 - Ukraine Balloon Strikes Deep Inside Russia
05:35 - Technical Specifications of Ukraine DART Missile
07:51 - Russian Electronic Warfare Evaded by DART
12:54 - Is Vladimir Putin's War Doomed to Fail?
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SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/wK4mNvTw
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Ukraine Deploys New DART Balloon Missile
01:04 - History of 100,000 Military Balloon Bombs
04:04 - Ukraine Balloon Strikes Deep Inside Russia
05:35 - Technical Specifications of Ukraine DART Missile
07:51 - Russian Electronic Warfare Evaded by DART
12:54 - Is Vladimir Putin's War Doomed to Fail?
Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join
#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
#themilitaryshow
SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/wK4mNvTw
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NewsTranscript
00:00Ukraine's arsenal just got a little bigger and a lot more effective with the introduction
00:05of an unusual yet exciting new weapon. One that rises to stratospheric heights before
00:11falling down upon its enemies. One that's able to evade jammers and electronic warfare
00:16systems with ease. One with the potential to crush Russian air defenses instantly,
00:21leaving the Kremlin's troops, assets and infrastructure increasingly exposed to subsequent
00:26strikes. Meet the DART, the missile that brings a decades-old idea into the 21st century and may
00:34just prove to be an invaluable addition to Ukraine's weapons collection. The DART was designed by Ukraine's
00:40Center of Innovative Technologies Programme. It's a lightweight missile that's designed to be lifted
00:46into the air with the aid of stratospheric balloons. Once the balloons reach a certain height, the missile
00:52is released, using built-in navigation systems to make its way onto a pre-planned flight path
00:57before eventually striking its target from above. It's a remarkably simple concept, and the idea of
01:04using balloons in warfare goes back centuries. In ancient China, for example, so-called Kongming
01:11lanterns were used as military signaling devices. A famous strategist named Zhuge Liang first used them
01:17to signal for help when he was surrounded by enemy forces, and the idea soon caught on.
01:22In the Western world, another early example of balloons being used for military purposes
01:27came in the late 18th century, during the Battle of Fleurus, in which French forces used a hydrogen-filled
01:33balloon to track enemy movements and provide real-time reports to troops on the ground. France even had its
01:40own short-lived balloon corps, which was eventually disbanded by Napoleon, but the idea of using balloons in
01:45battles certainly didn't end there. Austrian imperial forces famously used balloon-based bombs against
01:51Venice in 1849, for example. They attached explosives, each weighing around 24 to 30 pounds,
01:5911 to 14 kilograms, to paper-hot air balloons, which were then launched both from land and a steamer.
02:06Around 200 were launched in total, and at least one hit the city, as intended, though many ended up
02:11drifting away on the wind, highlighting one of the big challenges of relying on balloons in battle.
02:17As time went by, various military forces around the world, including the United States and the United
02:23Kingdom, attempted to solve these challenges and uncover new, more effective methods of balloon warfare.
02:29In World War I, balloons were quite extensively used as observation platforms, and World War II saw an
02:35even more diverse array of applications. The British used so-called barrage balloons, for example, to
02:42intercept aerial attacks from German bombers and early cruise missiles. They also orchestrated an
02:48entire military operation, Operation Outward, using balloons. This involved the launch of almost 100,000
02:54balloons in total, around half of which were carrying incendiaries, while the other half carried lengths of
03:00steel wire, designed to start fires and damage power lines across Europe, causing chaos for German forces to
03:06deal with. Japan, meanwhile, used fire balloons, also known as FUGO balloon bombs, to deliver explosive
03:14payloads across the Pacific Ocean. Thousands of these balloons, which measured around 33 feet or 10 meters in
03:21diameter, and were largely made of tissue paper, were launched from Honshu, carrying explosives and incendiary
03:27devices. A few hundred were eventually spotted across North America, killing six people and causing
03:34some small forest fires. Now, most of these historic examples had quite mixed results, but modern
03:40militaries possess far greater technologies, much stronger understandings of the conditions that can
03:45impact balloons in the air, and more advanced ways to counteract those conditions. As a result, some of the
03:51world's mightiest military forces, including the United States and China, continue to explore
03:57potential applications of balloon-based systems. Ukraine isn't merely exploring or experimenting,
04:03however. It's been actively deploying balloons to spread confusion, chaos and destruction across the
04:09Russian ranks for several years now, with the Wall Street Journal writing,
04:13But no country has pushed the balloon frontier further than Ukraine, which is using them to execute
04:19audacious strikes deep inside Russia, as well as for reconnaissance and transportation, and as decoys.
04:25Indeed, Kyiv's forces turned to balloons in the early days of the conflict,
04:30using them initially to drop bombs and grenades on Russian heads, or as decoys to exhaust the enemy's
04:35air defenses. By 2024, it had leveled up its balloon-based efforts, using products from American
04:42suppliers as delivery systems for compact kamikaze weapons. These balloons gave Ukraine the ability to
04:49strike Russian targets far beyond the occupied territories and over the international border
04:54between the two nations, and balloons are being used in numerous strikes on the likes of oil fields,
04:59refineries, shipping terminals, and railway hubs. As Michael Kaufman, expert on Russian military matters
05:05with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace notes, this is a very important part of Ukraine's
05:11overall effort to bring Russia to the negotiating table on much more reasonable terms. And it's thanks,
05:18in part, to balloons. It's hardly surprising, then, that Ukraine's military engineers have been seeking
05:24ways to push the envelope even further, and the DART missile is the end result of their efforts.
05:29So, here's a closer look at what it is and how it works. The Center of Innovative Technologies has not
05:36revealed the exact technical specifications of either the missile itself or the balloons used to launch
05:41it. However, publicly available data suggests that the missile is reasonably compact, measuring around
05:476 feet 1.8 meters in length and weighing close to 29 pounds or 13 kilograms when empty. It's said
05:55to be
05:55able to carry warheads weighing between 7.7 pounds or 3.5 kilograms and 22 pounds or 10 kilograms,
06:03depending on the configuration. The warhead is believed to incorporate graphite-based penetrating
06:08elements, though again, there aren't any specific confirmed details of how it works or what kinds of
06:14targets it might be deployed against. We don't know the precise range, accuracy rating, or even the
06:20production status of this missile either, which is all perfectly normal, given that Ukraine doesn't want
06:25to disclose data that Russians could use against them. It's much better to keep these kinds of weapons
06:31under wraps until they're ready to use in the war, as that gives them the best chance of catching the
06:36enemy off-guard. And even though many of the precise tech specs are still classified, we do have a
06:41general idea of how the DART functions. Reports suggest that the stratospheric balloons will carry it to
06:47altitudes of between 7.5 and 11.2 miles, or 12 to 18 kilometers. Once it reaches the right height,
06:55the missile is launched. At that point, it relies on special servo actuators and built-in navigation
07:01systems to stabilize in the air and move on to its preset flight path. That may sound like a minor
07:07detail,
07:08but it's incredibly important, because if the missile was simply dropped from a balloon without
07:12being able to stabilize itself, it could easily end up miles off course. Instead, the DART homes in on its
07:19target during its descent, but once it's around 3.7 miles, or 6 kilometers away from the Earth's
07:24surface, its navigation system switches off entirely. This is, without doubt, the most important and
07:30interesting part of the DART's design. With its navigation system disabled, it relies on a solid
07:36fuel engine to continue on its flight path, following a preset course before it eventually collides with
07:42its target, which might be anything from an ammo depot to an oil storage tank. Now here's why this matters.
07:48Russia is increasingly reliant on electronic warfare, EW systems to jam, spoof or otherwise
07:54disrupt Ukrainian drones and missiles. Its engineers continue to innovate in this area,
08:00adding additional antennas and crafting more complex systems to essentially stop Ukraine's
08:05aerial assets in their tracks, severing their communications and disabling their navigation
08:10systems so that they fail to strike their intended targets. The unique advantage of the DART system
08:16is that it doesn't rely on external communications or satellite navigation systems during those final
08:21few miles of its descent. So, at least in theory, even if Russia has a whole army of EW jammers
08:28on
08:28the ground, ready to overwhelm the airwaves with spoof signals and static, that doesn't matter.
08:34The noise makes no difference to this system because it isn't listening. Instead, it silently,
08:40worldlessly falls to its target and the jammers can't do a single thing to stop it. In a war that's
08:46increasingly dominated by EW technology, that's so important. Indeed, the Center for Strategic and
08:53International Studies notes that electronic warfare has become one of the defining forces of the conflict,
08:58with major impact for both sides. On the night of June 14-15, for example, Russia launched a staggering
09:0570 missiles and more than 600 drones, a grand total of 681 aerial assets, at Ukrainian towns and cities.
09:14Ukraine was able to either destroy or jam 632 of those assets, signalling the remarkable power and
09:20potential of EW systems to save lives and prevent disasters. The sheer prevalence of GPS jamming systems
09:27across the battlefield today has forced both Russia and Ukraine into a desperate race to find
09:32alternative guidance methods, or to develop weapons that, effectively, already know where they're
09:38going from the start and don't need to be guided the entire way, like the Dart. But before we dig
09:43into the other unique benefits, applications and potential drawbacks of this new weapon,
09:48there's more where this came from, so if you're getting value from the military show, don't forget to
09:53subscribe. Now, the fact that the Dart has the potential to evade the enemy's EW systems is
09:59arguably its biggest advantage, but it's not its only one. Another enormous benefit of this system
10:05is linked to the fact that it launches from a balloon. That means it could, theoretically,
10:09be deployed from almost anywhere. That includes frontline locations, as well as locations deep inside
10:15Ukraine's own territory, as historical weather charts show that stratospheric winds tend to blow in
10:21an easterly direction from Ukraine and into Russia. A balloon could, for example, be launched in Kyiv
10:27and simply ride the breeze 100 miles or more towards Moscow before dropping its payload. And since we're
10:33talking about balloons here, not aircraft, all Ukraine soldiers have to do is inflate the system
10:39and let it fly. There's no need for runways or airfields, nor is there any need to put a pilot's
10:44life in jeopardy or risk the damage or destruction of an expensive aircraft in order to use these types of
10:50munitions. They can be dispatched at any point, from almost any location, and simply left to make
10:55their journey into enemy territory. This gives Russia something completely different to deal with.
11:01Up to now, it had to contend with a diverse array of Ukraine's domestically developed drones and
11:06missiles, as well as Western weapons like storm shadows and attackums. While they're all different,
11:12so many of those systems follow the same conventional patterns and have similar vulnerabilities
11:16that can be exploited with the aid of radars, air defenses, and EW technologies.
11:22The DART is different in almost every way. It soars to far greater heights than the average drone,
11:28and speeds towards its targets without relying on the same kinds of navigation technologies as the
11:33average missile. And that presents Russia with a problem, because the Kremlin doesn't yet have a
11:38proven way to counteract this sort of system. All it can do is hope that its air defense systems,
11:44like the S-300 and S-400, are able to spot the missiles on approach and intercept them before
11:50the moment of impact. But recent years have provided ample evidence that these kinds of
11:55systems cannot be classed as reliable. Dozens have been damaged and destroyed by Ukraine,
12:00and with fewer defenses available to them, the Kremlin's commanders have been forced to reposition
12:05their remaining assets and prioritize protection of their most important infrastructure and other
12:10locations, like Moscow. Even then, Ukraine continues to prove that Russia's defenses simply aren't
12:16sufficient, as Kyiv's drone operators have carried out several successive strikes on the biggest and
12:21best defended cities, like Moscow itself, as well as St. Petersburg. With the power of the DART in
12:27their arsenal, Ukraine's defense forces may be able to make those strikes even deadlier and more
12:32devastating for the Kremlin. It could, for instance, launch a series of DART missiles as an opening act of
12:38an aerial assault, using them to disable any radars or defenses in a target zone. Then,
12:44they could follow up with swarms of drones and conventional missiles,
12:47laying waste to expose pieces of energy infrastructure and military assets.
12:52And the benefits don't end there. There's also the question of cost. It's no secret that,
12:57even with generous funding and support packages from its allies across Europe and beyond, Ukraine can't
13:03match Russia's ridiculously high levels of defense spending. Nor can it match its opponent in terms of
13:08vast ammunition stockpiles, manpower, or military production capacity. It doesn't have the vast
13:14factories and logistic networks that Russia relies on to manufacture expensive missiles and drones in
13:20mass quantities. As a result, it has to do things differently. It has to be adaptable and cost
13:26efficient. That's why we've seen Ukraine lean so heavily on domestic innovations, like its
13:31increasingly diverse drone army, made up for the most part of unmanned aerial vehicles that are
13:36relatively cheap and easy to produce. It's also why Ukraine has spent so much of this war not
13:42necessarily trying to craft the perfect weapon, but instead investing in systems that are functional,
13:47affordable, and difficult for the enemy to deal with. A lightweight balloon-launched missile fits the
13:52bill perfectly. Thanks to its compact nature, combined with the fact that it can simply float
13:58into the air, rather than needing to be launched and piloted, the DART should be quite cheap for
14:02Ukraine to put into serial production. While we don't exactly know how much each unit costs,
14:08they're likely to be significantly cheaper than larger and more complicated cruise or ballistic
14:12missile systems. And even though the DART's warhead is reasonably small, it should still pack enough of
14:19a punch to deal serious damage to the right types of targets. With all that said, it's important to
14:24not get carried away and assume that the DART is a flawless weapon, or that it solves all of Ukraine's
14:30problems. There's still much that we don't know about this system after all, and time and patience will
14:35be required to fully understand its real-world capabilities and actual efficiency. Experts already
14:41asking questions about how effective the DART's navigation systems need to be, for example,
14:46in order for it to successfully remain on target even when those systems are disabled.
14:51Many have also pointed out historical problems related to balloon-based systems. Anyone who's
14:57ever let a balloon drift away on the wind, for example, will know how easily affected these objects
15:02are by wind and general climate conditions. Of course, military-grade stratospheric balloons
15:08aren't exactly the same as the kind of birthday balloons someone might use at home. But many of the
15:13same rules still apply. They can be blown in different directions by the wind, and they're
15:18subject to sudden changes in wind strength and weather. Factors like launch timing and release
15:23conditions can all introduce a certain degree of uncertainty, which could potentially make the
15:28DART more difficult to control. Questions must therefore be asked about DART's overall range,
15:33how likely it is to hit its target, and what kind of margin of error it has in terms of
15:38its accuracy.
15:39We also still need to know how much each unit costs to make and whether or not the system has
15:43been
15:44tested or even used in real combat conditions yet, or whether it's still in the early planning and
15:49prototype stage. Without this information, it's impossible to draw definitive conclusions about
15:54the weapon's genuine value and viability. However, based on what we know so far, there's plenty of
16:01reason to be optimistic about this system. On paper at least, it seems to solve a number of issues
16:06that Ukraine has encountered when using more conventional munitions, while presenting new
16:11challenges to the enemy. It's certainly a unique proposition, and one that, if it proves successful,
16:16could pave the way for more systems of a similar style, designed specifically to counteract EW
16:22technologies by disabling its own internal navigation systems as it approaches its target.
16:27And Kyiv has no intention of stopping here. While they may have been quite secretive about the DART's
16:33tech specs, the developers of this system have openly admitted that its technology could be
16:38used as a foundation for future projects, which could include ballistic and surface-to-air missiles.
16:44Again, there aren't any further details of what that might entail, but Ukraine's teams might
16:49already be exploring additional ways to use balloons to launch bigger and deadlier munitions,
16:54or to incorporate smarter navigation systems into those weapons to help them bypass Russia's EW
17:00jammers. Either way, one thing is clear, Ukraine's ambition remains unmatched, and the country continues
17:06to demonstrate an unwavering commitment to innovation, always looking for new, more exciting ways to break
17:12boundaries and stretch the sinews of military technologies in ways that the rest of the world
17:17can barely begin to imagine. It's because of its ambition, innovation, and self-belief that Ukraine is
17:24in such a strong place right now, while Russia is spiraling into an ever deeper and darker crisis,
17:29which you can learn more about in this video, which shows how even Vladimir Putin is starting
17:35to realize that his war is doomed. And to learn about the long-term implications of that fact,
17:40watch this video, which looks at how Russia can continue to suffer for generations to come,
17:46even when the war eventually ends. And for more in-depth analysis and up-to-date reporting from the
17:51Russia-Ukraine war and other major conflicts across the globe, make sure to subscribe to the military show today.
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