In Russia, a ball-shaped reconnaissance drone with nanoparticles is patented

Rospatent has registered a patent for a utility model – a motorless reconnaissance drone with a ball-shaped body. The inventors of the drone are Timofey and Vsevolod Gorshenin.

The spherical body is “a sealed container made of lightweight thermal insulating fabric with a radiolucent surface, equipped with a flight stabilizer, as well as a control system with nozzles for moving the drone horizontally and downwards.” The nozzles are connected inside the housing with a transceiver to monitor the signal lines.

The description of the invention states that there are similar drones on the market, but they have disadvantages: noisy motors and propellers, which makes them easy to detect and destroy. The patented drone design reduces the noise of a non-motorized device, as evident from Rospatent materials.

You can launch the drone from the stove using pipes, a dynamometer, a thermometer and a steam generator, and control it in the air, opening the nozzles and using jet “ministers”. At the bottom of the drone body there is a nozzle that can be connected to the steam generator during launch. After completing the task, the drone self-destructs.

“The initial lift height of an unpowered reconnaissance drone is set by the value of the thermometer and dynamometer, depending on the weight of the reconnaissance unit and the range of the reconnaissance area. The drone is then directed along a flat trajectory towards the reconnaissance area, controlled by nozzles (nozzles) horizontally. Upon approaching the reconnaissance area, aerial photographs are taken. After aerial photography, the unpowered reconnaissance drone enters self-destruct mode based on a descent signal controlled by the descent nozzles on the selected target with the detonation of the warhead (if any),” the material says. Rospatent.

The volume of the chamber, the size of the nozzles and their control are selected experimentally.

The sealed chamber may be made of a lightweight heat-insulating fabric with a radiolucent surface, for example based on a thin film of hydrogenated amorphous carbon with ferromagnetic nanoparticles deposited on a flexible aramid fabric substrate. Nanostructures confer advantages to drones: they have low specific gravity, strength and heat resistance, and resistance to aggressive environments.

The inventors could not be contacted at the time of publication.

The balls are already used for combat operations. On October 24, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that a small balloon launched from Ukraine was shot down over the territory of the Rostov region. A similar enemy balloon was shot down in May over the Moscow region. In April, the balloon was destroyed over the Kursk region. As RBC wrote, in March 2024, the Russian Armed Forces first attacked a similar “terrorist balloon” disguised as a probe.