Pakistani air defences: the Barrage Balloons

[planeman]

Info on my blog. http://planeman-bluffersguide.blogspot.com/2010/05/barrage-balloons-protect-nuclear.html

List of sites:
1 - 33° 37' 24" N 73° 27' 6" E
2 - 33° 36' 57" N 73° 26' 32" E
3 - 33° 36' 57" N 73° 26' 32" E
4 - 33° 37' 4" N 73° 26' 38" E
5 - 33° 36' 43" N 73° 26' 16" E
6 - 33° 36' 36" N 73° 26' 22" E
7 - 33° 37' 16" N 73° 27' 5" E
8 - 33° 36' 35" N 73° 24' 55" E
9 - 33° 36' 37" N 73° 24' 40" E
10 - 33° 36' 43" N 73° 24' 28" E
11 - 33° 36' 58" N 73° 23' 59" E
12 - 33° 37' 4" N 73° 23' 50" E
13 - 33° 36' 55" N 73° 23' 45" E
14 - 33° 37' 12" N 73° 24' 2" E
15 - 33° 37' 50" N 73° 24' 9" E
16 - 33° 34' 19" N 73° 23' 4" E
17 - 33° 34' 19" N 73° 22' 52" E
18 - 33° 34' 16" N 73° 22' 47" E
19 - 33° 34' 17" N 73° 22' 37" E
20 - 33° 34' 5" N 73° 22' 26" E
21 - 33° 34' 13" N 73° 21' 51" E
22 - 33° 34' 20" N 73° 22' 2" E
23 - 33° 34' 33" N 73° 22' 20" E
24 - 33° 34' 43" N 73° 22' 30" E
25 - 33° 34' 52" N 73° 23' 39" E
26 - 33° 34' 55" N 73° 24' 6" E
27 - 33° 35' 7" N 73° 25' 4" E
28 - 33° 35' 10" N 73° 25' 5" E
29 - 33° 35' 30" N 73° 25' 18" E
30 - 33° 35' 42" N 73° 25' 28" E
31 - 33° 34' 9" N 73° 21' 44" E
32 - 33° 34' 5" N 73° 21' 34" E
33 - 33° 35' 16" N 73° 19' 35" E
34 - 33° 35' 34" N 73° 19' 45" E
35 - 33° 35' 29" N 73° 19' 54" E
36 - 33° 35' 44" N 73° 21' 23" E
37 - 33° 35' 28" N 73° 21' 44" E
38 - 33° 35' 19" N 73° 22' 6" E
39 - 33° 35' 19" N 73° 22' 6" E
40 - 33° 35' 23" N 73° 21' 52" E
41 - 33° 35' 52" N 73° 21' 14" E

 

[ahmedsid]

Seems like Pakistanis are not sleeping with their defences, they are trying out everything from the books, right from the World War era! Dont know the exact effectivesness of these, but like the writer said, this is for the Jaguars on their low level flights!

 

[LETHALFORCE]

This is to protect a nuclear facility but dosen't it advertise the facility location?? A high flying UAV or satellite could easily pick up the location of these facilities. This idea was abandoned in ww2 era maybe Pakistan has done something different??

 

[Kunal Biswas]

21 Jan 2009 ... The Pentagon last week notified Congress of the sale of six L-88 tethered aerostat radar systems to Pakistan for $155 million if all options are exercised.

"The radar systems will add to Pakistan's ability to monitor its western borders in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and control narcotics trade activities," the Pentagon said in a statement. "Specifically, the radar systems will be used to monitor ground traffic and low-flying aircraft along this border.

Volume) 275,000-625,000 cubic feet
Tether Length) 25,000 feet
Payload Weight) 1,200-3,400 pounds
Maximum Detection Range) 200 Miles

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-89943371.html

Besides Barrage Balloons, Pakistani Air-defense also have L-88 radar-equipped moored balloon..

 

[Kunal Biswas]

The barrage balloons are probably positions to deter the IAF using terrain hugging to evade the active air defences during an air attack, perhaps by the low-level optimised Jaguar strike aircraft. The balloons offer little defence against cruise missiles or higher-flying strikes employing stand-off weapons.

Most of them are barrage balloons but no doubt their are radar Balloon as L-88 can effectively track low flying Aircrafts (Jaguar and Mig-27)..

Btw, Keep up the good work!

 

[planeman]

Good suggestion but I'm pretty confident all of those really are regular barrage balloons.

I'm still on the lookout for their Aerosats I don't have spec's on Pakistan's version but almost certainly much much bigger balloon than the ones here which are just 10m long - the Aerosats used by US are about 60-65m long (eg 31.485765°, -110.294567°). Also there is photo evidence of the balloons somewhere but I can't find it now

I originally didn't know what they were so I asked around within the OSINT community and someone who concentrates on Pakistan gave me the info which is absolutely convincing. Once you know you are looking for barrage balloons they are easy to spot, it's just I wasn't looking for balloons so I had them as "WTF is this????" placemarks