It can carry surveillance technology to great heights.. Modern airships are America's weapon to monitor Russia and China

The United States is investing in high-altitude inflatables, or inflatables, that can conduct surveillance from altitudes of up to 90,000 feet.

A report by Politico stated that the inflatable planes will be added to the vast surveillance network of the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) and can be used to track hypersonic weapons.

Long lasting, flexible and multifaceted

Tom Karako, a senior fellow in the International Security Program and director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategy and International Studies, tells Politico that the Pentagon is investing heavily in blimps that can be used for a wide variety of missions.

In the past two years, the United States has invested about $3.8 million in airship projects, and plans to spend a whopping $27.1 million in fiscal year 2023.

Airships are used by the Pentagon with the aim of collecting data and transmitting information to aircraft.

The United States hopes the balloons will help track and deter hypersonic weapons being developed by China and Russia.

Karako returned to say that these balloons "can carry technology platforms, whether they are communications or data transmission, or programs to track air and missile threats."

Powered by renewable solar energy

The specialized balloons are produced by Raven Aerostar, a division of the Raven Industries Complex, equipped with a flight controller and powered by solar powered batteries making them environmentally friendly and long lasting.

Meanwhile, the package of payload electronics on board the airships is responsible for the safety of flight, navigation and communication.

The balloons are also powered by a special machine-learning algorithm that predicts wind directions and integrates incoming sensor data in real time.

Airships are easy to use and cost-effective, with hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop and operate compared to the millions required for other aircraft or satellites.

Airships are not a new technology. NASA, private companies, and even the US military have experimented with them in the past because they offer many advantages at a fraction of the cost of other aircraft.