KYIV – Ukraine’s Center of Innovative Technologies Program (CITP) has developed the DART, a guided missile dropped from stratospheric balloons that cuts its own navigation before terminal descent, denying Russian jammers a signal to target, and delivers a graphite warhead designed to short out electrical grids deep inside Russia.

🤯 Ukraine has reportedly developed the EW-resistant “DART” missile.

Launched from stratospheric balloons at altitudes of 12–18 km, the missile completely shuts off its navigation at 6 km, flying purely on a fixed course to evade jamming. pic.twitter.com/vsAyz8jW8z

— UNITED24 Media (@United24media) June 17, 2026

The missile, was first presented at the Eurosatory defense exhibition outside Paris on June 16. It measures 1.84 meters in length, weighs 13 kilograms, and carries a warhead of up to 10 kilograms.

Stratospheric balloons lift it to altitudes between seven and 11 miles before release, where thin air keeps the weapon above the effective reach of Russian air defenses. Servo-actuators, small motorized control surfaces, stabilize the weapon during the drop.

DART uses satellite navigation through most of its descent, then cuts all guidance systems at roughly 3.7 miles. A solid-fuel engine ignites and drives it toward its target on a fixed course. With no active signal to target, Russian electronic warfare (EW) systems cannot interfere with the missile during its final approach.

“Balloons are actively used by the Defense Forces of Ukraine mainly as support platforms and as means for medium and deep strikes,” retired Col. Viktor Kevliuk, a Center for Defense Strategies analyst and 35-year Ukrainian Army veteran, told Euromaidan Press last month. “They are inexpensive, inconspicuous on radars, can hang in the air for a long time and carry a payload.”

Ukraine has floated more than 1,000 balloons into Russian airspace, Kevliuk said. Prevailing west-to-east winds carry them deep into Russia, a geographic advantage Moscow cannot replicate.

Balloons have drifted as far as Moscow, where air defenses tracked them at roughly six miles during a combined strike in September 2025. CITP told Ukrainian media, “Aerostats are not our development, but a partner’s.

DART remains pending Ukrainian Ministry of Defense codification.