An incendiary balloon (or balloon bomb) is a balloon inflated with a lighter-than-air gas such as hot air, hydrogen, or helium, that has a bomb, incendiary device, or Molotov cocktail attached. The balloon is carried by the prevailing winds to the target area, where it falls or releases its payload.
Historical use
Early proposals
In 1792, Joseph-Michel Montgolfier suggested using balloons for bombing British forces in Toulon.
[ Military Aircraft, Origins to 1918: An Illustrated History of Their Impact, Justin D. Murphy, page 161] In 1807, Denmark tried to build a dirigible to bomb British ships blockading Copenhagen.
[ Military Aircraft, Origins to 1918: An Illustrated History of Their Impact, Justin D. Murphy, page 9–10] In 1846 a British board rejected as impractical a bombing design by Samuel Alfred Warner.
[ Military Ballooning During the Early Civil War, The Johns Hopkins University Press, F. Stansbury Haydon, page 18–20] Attempts by Henry Tracey Coxwell to interest the British government a few years later were rejected as well.
In 1847, John Wise proposed the use of balloon bombs in the Mexican–American War.
Austrian use at Venice in 1849
The first aggressive use of balloons in warfare occurred in 1849 during the First Italian War of Independence.
[ Air Power in the Age of Total War, John Buckley][ The Future of Drone Use: Opportunities and Threats from Ethical and Legal Perspectives, Asser Press - Springer, chapter by Alan McKenna, page 355] Austrian Empire forces, who were besieging Venice, attempted to deploy approximately 200 paper hot air balloons. Each balloon was equipped with a 24-to-30-pound (11 to 14 kg) bomb, designed to be dropped over the besieged city via a
Fuze. The majority of the balloons were launched from land, but some were also dispatched from the side-wheel steamer
SMS Vulcano, which served as a balloon carrier. To determine the correct fuse settings, the Austrians utilized smaller pilot balloons. At least one bomb landed in the city. However, due to changes in wind direction after launch, most of the balloons missed their target. Some even drifted back over Austrian lines and the launching ship,
Vulcano.
[ Mikesh, Robert C. "Japan's World War II balloon bomb attacks on North America." (1973).]
World War II
Operation Outward
During World War II, the British Operation Outward launched some 99,142 balloons at Germany, 53,543 of which were carrying incendiaries, the other 45,599 carrying trailing wires to damage high voltage lines.
[ The Moby Dick Project: Reconnaissance Balloons Over Russia, Curtis Peebles, Smithsonian Institution Press, page 56]
Fu-Go
During the period of 1944-1945, in the midst of World War II, Japan initiated the launch of approximately 9,300 Fu-Go balloon bombs targeted at North America. These balloons, with a diameter of 10 meters (33 feet), were filled with hydrogen and typically transported one bomb weighing 15 kilograms (33 lbs) or alternatively, one 12-kilogram (26 lbs) bomb along with four additional bombs each weighing 5 kilograms (11 lbs).
[ Biological Warfare Against Crops, S. Whitby, Palgrave Macmillan, page 163] The Fu-Go balloons utilized the power of the winter jet stream, which travels at a speed of 220 miles per hour (350 km/h), to traverse a distance of 5,000 miles (8,000 km) across the Pacific Ocean in roughly three days. To maintain a specific altitude, the balloons were equipped with a barometric sensor that would jettison ballast sandbags whenever the balloon descended below 30,000 feet (9,100 m). If the sensor detected an altitude exceeding 38,000 feet (12,000 m), hydrogen would be released from the balloon. This entire mechanism was set into motion 52 minutes post-launch, allowing the balloon to attain its initial altitude. The final sandbag stations were equipped with incendiary bombs, which were dispensed by the same mechanism. Following the final release, the balloon triggered a self-destruction process and dropped an additional bomb.
[ Unmanned Systems of World Wars I and II, H. R. Everett & Michael Toscano, MIT, page 247]
The balloons were launched in the winter to take advantage of the more favorable winter jet stream.[ Fu-go: The Curious History of Japan's Balloon Bomb Attack on America, Ross Coen, page 192][ Arakawa, H. "Basic principles of the balloon bomb." Papers in Meteorology and Geophysics 6.3–4 (1956): 239–243.] The Fu-Go balloons inflicted relatively little damage, except for one fatal incident in which a woman and five children were killed near Bly, Oregon after they approached a balloon that had landed at the subsequently named Mitchell Recreation Area.[ Nine from Aberdeen, Jeffrey M. Leatherwood, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, page 292] The deaths of six civilians were the only fatalities caused by fire balloons on American soil during World War II.[ Attack of the Fire Balloons – Japan's Intercontinental Weapon, Praise Ojo, War History Online, August 25, 2018]
Cold War
United States
Following World War II, the United States developed the E77 balloon bomb based on the Fu-Go balloon. This balloon was intended to disperse an anti-crop agent, but it was not used operationally.
[ Biological Warfare Against Crops, S. Whitby, Palgrave Macmillan, page 167][[Whitby, Simon M. "The potential use of plant pathogens against crops." Microbes and infection 3.1 (2001): 73–80.] The 1954–1955 WS-124A Flying Cloud program tested high-altitude balloons for the delivery of weapons of mass destruction, but they were found infeasible because of their inaccuracy.
21st century use
Gaza Strip
Since the beginning of the 2018 Gaza border protests, Palestinian militants have been launching
at Israel as a form of
agro-terrorism. Since the beginning of May 2018,
[ Kite terror continues to strike Gaza border communities, 8 May 2018, Ynet.] helium-filled incendiary balloons have been used alongside the kites.
[ Beyond kites: 'Fire balloons'; increasingly used to set southern Israel ablaze, Times of Israel, 4 June 2018][ Israel announces Gaza sanctions in response to cross-border blazes, Reuters, 9 July 2018][ Gaza rocket barrage triggers Israeli air strikes, BBC, 20 June 2018] Gazan balloons are devised from helium-filled party balloons or
that are strung together, with flaming rags, other incendiary devices, or explosives strung below.
[ Israel's military struggles to battle party balloons, Financial Times, Mehul Srivastava, 20 June 2018][ Flaming Condoms Are the Newest Threat to Southern Israel, Bloomberg, Alisa Odenheimer, 21 June 2018] The prevailing wind blowing in from the Mediterranean Sea, propels the balloons inland from Gaza into Israel.
[ Condoms, kites, birthday balloons: 'Silly' Gaza weapons could lead to real war, Times of Israel, Judah Ari Gross, 20 June 2018]
By July 2018, incendiary kites and balloons had started 678 fires in Israel, burning 910 hectares (2,260 acres) of woodland, and 610 hectares (1,500 acres) of agricultural lands.[ Police investigate if 'suspicious balloon' in Beersheba came from Gaza, Times of Israel 31 January 2018][ In first, incendiary balloon lands in Be'er Sheva, YNET, Ilana Curiel and Matan Tzuri, 30 July 2018] In response to these incendiary attacks, Israel closed the Kerem Shalom border crossing in July 2018, but later reopened it after a few months of relative calm.[ As Gaza protests continue, IDF employs new tactics to combat riots , The Jerusalem Post, 12 May 2018.] The method ultimately proved ineffective.[ Beyond kites: 'Fire balloons' increasingly used to set southern Israel ablaze, Times of Israel, 4 June 2018]
Persistent incidents of airborne arson were observed in the years 2019,[ "Hamas' Wave of Environmental Terrorism", September 9, 2020, IDF][ "Israel halves Gaza fishing zone over incendiary balloon fires", Al Jazeera, July 25, 2021.] The most effective strategy against these balloons was found to be continuous surveillance and manual extinguishing of the fires.
See also
