Iran’s ‘jellyfish drones’ warn of a whole new – Latest News
This week’s report of a downed US pilot’s encounter with “jellyfish drones” within the skies over Iran set off a vigorous protection debate — and foreshadows future risks.
A source instructed CNN that the F-15 pilot described seeing “multiple drones interconnected and moving as one, with smaller drones below the bigger drones like legs” earlier than the jet crashed close to the Zagros Mountains.
“Real alien sh-t,” because the pilot put it.
But consultants are divided about what precisely the pilot noticed, and whether or not it represents a new kind of menace.
The description is very reminiscent of earlier sightings of what regarded like giant aerial jellyfish over each Iraq and Afghanistan.
One of these, filmed close to Al Taqaddum Air Base in Iraq in 2017, was initially reported as a UFO — however a Pentagon investigation concluded that it was a cluster of metallic balloons.
Another video, apparently taken by a Reaper drone in Afghanistan in 2024, confirmed a related multi-balloon association — a sight so bizarre that some took it to be a UFO, however on nearer examination turned out to be completely earthly.
Many militaries use balloons — typically single large climate balloons, typically clusters or trains of smaller balloons — to hold sensors for intelligence-gathering functions.
Perhaps essentially the most well-known instance of that is 1947’s Project Mogul, a extremely categorised US effort geared toward detecting the stratospheric echoes of Soviet nuclear exams.
When particles from a Project Mogul balloon practice was discovered close to Roswell, NM, the navy initially claimed it was a crashed flying saucer — spawning an complete industry that’s nonetheless going sturdy.
Those not too long ago noticed Middle East jellyfish balloon clusters have been seemingly carrying digital surveillance gadgets or different sensors, and should have been of Iranian origin.
But given the F-15 pilot’s particular point out of drones, we shouldn’t dismiss this sighting as a balloon cluster, regardless of the plain similarity.
Rather a lot is using on the phrase “interconnected” within the service member’s testimony.
If it means the drones have been bodily interconnected with wires strung between them, this seems like a reinvention of the barrage balloon idea used to guard cities in World War II.
These giant tethered blimps have been strung along with wires, creating an impassable impediment to low-flying bombers.
An identical association utilizing drones may create an airborne barrier towards incoming plane and cruise missiles.
However, “interconnected” may confer with digital hyperlinks that had the drones flying in formation in a giant jellyfish-like form.
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That’s easy enough for light-show drones: Thousands of them, pre-programmed and with a central controller, can kind shifting shapes of symbols, dragons, phrases or the rest — together with, yes, jellyfish.
The kind of controls utilized by light-show drones are simply jammed, so that they’re impractical in a navy setting.
But many militaries, together with the US, Ukraine and Russia, are engaged on swarming drone capabilities, usually utilizing secure mesh radio systems.
In a swarm, a group of autonomous drones work collectively and fly in formation with out the need for the central control and deliberate choreography light-show drones require.
The F-15 pilot additionally described an obvious “minefield of drones” within the air, which aligns with the WWII barrage balloon tactic.
Armed drones are a lot too gradual to catch an agile jet fighter — however a mass of them spreading out can cowl a massive part of the sky.
A jet flying by means of the formation dangers catastrophic harm if it will get close to 1 that detonates.
In 2021 Russian drone maker ZALA described utilizing wide-spaced interceptor drones to create an aerial minefield unattainable to cross by means of, although there’s no proof the company pushed ahead with this concept.
Some have urged that the pilot, who suffered a concussion within the crash, will need to have been mistaken about what he noticed.
This would definitely be handy.
But the Iranians have a long historical past of navy drone development, and Tehran has turn into a main drone exporter.
The hundreds of Shahed drones that Russia flings at Ukraine’s cities have been designed in Iran.
And the regime is actually not ignorant of swarms: In 2021 the Iranian Army showcased a new system it referred to as Mass Flight, by which an operator controls a chief drone with a squadron of 9 extra drones mechanically following its lead.
This was described as having “counter air capability,” that means it could possibly be used towards plane.
The technology was crude on the time, however it could have superior considerably within the final 5 years.
Crucially, we nonetheless don’t know if regardless of the F-15 encountered was really associated to the downing of the plane: did the pilot run into a drone?
Or was he distracted enough to overlook one other menace? Or was this sighting merely a weird incidental function of the mission?
At current we now have more questions than solutions.
Only the Iranians know the reality — and so they’re not telling.
David Hambling is the creator of “Swarm Troopers: How Small Drones Will Conquer the World.”
