this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
123 points (99.2% liked)

World News

55513 readers
2668 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] tal@lemmy.today 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Ehhh....I mean, if the things have a GPS receiver, which I assume that they do, they can probably be configured to move to a given location and then only then flip on the cell radio to act as a relay.

EDIT: Honestly, I'm kind of surprised that someone hasn't tried a drone that can deploy, say hydrogen or helium balloons with a relay radio hanging from them. It's gotta be a complete pain in the ass to try to shoot balloons down, as they're cheap, and they probably linger in an area long enough to permit for operations using them as a relay on an extended basis. They can also probably get a lot higher than a comparable drone, if that's desirable.

[–] real_squids@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

EDIT: Honestly, I'm kind of surprised that someone hasn't tried a drone that can deploy, say hydrogen or helium balloons

Balloons have already been tried, deploying them from drones is a pain so they're mostly ground based. Russians are currently doing that to compensate for starlink losses

edit: look up Barrage-1, that's their current 5G balloon testbed

[–] tal@lemmy.today 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

https://www.twz.com/news-features/russia-eyes-balloon-communications-system-to-fill-massive-gap-left-after-losing-starlink

Ah, gotcha, thanks. It looks like that's a larger and more elaborate than what I was thinking of, with a ballast system. considers I dunno what the cost impact is.

However, the Barrage-1’s comparatively low altitudes could make them targets for Ukrainian air defense systems and other countermeasures.

“And what’s most important for us? To have the means that can detect such objects over our territory,” Beskrestnov suggested. “And to have the ability to shoot down such targets if they pose a threat. As far as I remember, the S-300 [surface to air missile system] can engage targets at an altitude of 20-30 km (about 12 to 19 miles).”

If it's expensive enough, then using S-300s or comparable systems becomes economical.