Ukrainian forces have borrowed a page from China’s hypersonic glide-weapon testing and applied it to the Eastern European theater, using one-way attack drones against Russia.
Instead of launching the Hornet strike drone from a ground-based catapult, Ukrainian operators tethered it to a high-altitude balloon, extending its range.
Defense news website Defense Blog reports:
The test, details of which circulated through Ukrainian military channels, involved a Hornet manufactured by Perennial Autonomy being dropped from a balloon at approximately 8 kilometers altitude after the aerostat carried the drone 42 kilometers from its launch point.
Hellbound and Down 