US Army floats the option of fielding high-altitude balloons

November 12, 2020

Defense News:

 

The U.S. Army is now carving out a path to field high-altitude balloons to provide an additional, but less expensive, layer of communications, connectivity, range extension, and surveillance capabilities, adding resiliency to the service’s existing architecture of space assets and aircraft supporting multidomain operations.

Recent tests and experiments with high-altitude balloons at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, left an impression on the head of the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command. “It’s just phenomenal what we’re able to do with high-altitude balloons,” Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler told Defense News in an interview ahead of the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference, which took place virtually on Oct. 13-16…

 

Click here to read the full article.