The Pentagon invests in effective and less expensive technologies
Deterrence balloons..the new US army weapon against China and Russia
China has tested a hypersonic missile.
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The Pentagon wants to use balloons to monitor threats on the ground.
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Airships flying at an altitude of between 60,000 and 90,000 feet will be added to the Pentagon's vast surveillance network and could eventually be used to track hypersonic weapons.
The idea may sound like science fiction, but Pentagon budget documents indicate that the project is currently moving from the Department of Defense science community to the military services.
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, said that the Pentagon continues to invest in these projects.
Because the army can use balloons for different missions.
Over the past two years, the Pentagon has spent about $3.8 million on balloon projects, and plans to spend $27.1 million in fiscal year 2023 to continue work on multiple efforts, according to budget documents.
Despite the failure of the latest test, the Pentagon is working on a hypersonic weapons program.
Most important to the United States, the balloons could help track and deter hypersonic weapons being developed by China and Russia.
Surprise
Last August, China surprised the US Department of Defense by testing a hypersonic missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon, which missed its target by about 20 miles.
Russia began ramping up development of hypersonic weapons in response to the United States' withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002. The Russian government said it launched a hypersonic missile in an attack on Ukraine in March, its first use on the battlefield.
This is one of the ways in which airships can be useful;
Because using satellites to track missiles is expensive.
The teardrop-shaped balloons collect complex data and navigate using artificial intelligence algorithms.
secret efforts
For years, the Defense Department has conducted tests using high-altitude balloons and solar-powered drones to collect data, provide communications to ground forces, and mitigate satellite problems.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is quietly transferring balloon projects to the military to collect data and transmit information to planes, POLITICO found in Defense Department budget justification documents.
The "Cold Star" project was widely taken up in 2019, a project designed to locate drug smugglers.
At that time, the Pentagon launched 25 observation balloons from South Dakota as part of the experiment.
Cold Star program.
The Pentagon confirmed that the Cold Star program had moved into service.
The Defense Department will not reveal details about the efforts because they are classified.
Another initiative aims to link all technologies together.
The Pentagon is conducting experiments to evaluate how to combine high-altitude balloons and commercial satellites in an attack known as a "kill chain."
“(The balloons) can be a carrier for any of the platforms,” Karako said.
Whether it is related to communications or data, or means of tracking air and missile threats, or various weapons, with no commitment to the expected orbits of the satellites.
The Ministry of Defense is also working on the use of drones equipped with "stratospheric payloads", along with balloons, to track moving ground targets, provide communications and intercept electronic signals.
The idea is for the technology to pass to the military and US Special Operations Command, according to budget documents.
Finding other ways to track ground targets is a priority for the Pentagon, at a time when the Air Force has retired surveillance planes.
operations center
The company, "Raven Aerostar", produces airships for military use.
The company said its balloon is equipped with a battery-powered flight controller that is charged using solar panels.
The company's director of engineering, Russell Vander Werf, said it also had an electronic system to control flight safety, navigation and communications.
The wind currents allow the balloon to fly along the desired flight path, and the company takes advantage of different wind speeds and directions to move the balloon to the target area.
but this is not all.
Werf said Raven Aerostar uses a special machine-learning algorithm that predicts wind directions and integrates incoming sensor data in real time.
He added that the company also uses software to command and monitor the balloon fleet;
It has an operations center staffed by trained flight engineers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Balloons do the work of airplanes
Balloons can do the work of traditional planes and satellites, and "stratospheric balloons" can be built and launched at a fraction of the cost and time.
For example, the cost of launching and operating balloons for weeks or months is hundreds of thousands of dollars, compared to the millions - or tens of millions - needed to launch and operate aircraft or satellites.
The US space agency (NASA) has been operating helium-filled "stratospheric balloons" since the 1950s, and in recent years the military has tested these systems at low altitudes.
The private sector is also investing in the military balloon market.
And software company Alphabet operated balloons of this type in 2017, to provide mobile communications in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
espionage with balloons
In mid-2010, the military was investing in the balloon espionage program, which it eventually scrapped in 2017. This project is known as the Joint Ground Attack Altitude Sensing System.
The balloon, unlike high-altitude balloons, was restrained and designed to track boats, land vehicles, drones and cruise missiles.
The balloons used by the Department of Defense are now smaller, lighter, and can fly much higher than a spy balloon.
Beginning in 2015, the military conducted three-year exercises to determine whether to continue purchasing Raytheon spy balloons;
But the balloon got out of control, lost contact with the launch station near Baltimore, flew for three hours and eventually landed near Moreland, Pennsylvania.
After that, the military decided to abandon the program, which cost about two billion dollars, and was designed to work in the US Central Command.
"If we can develop ourselves and overcome the aftermath of the spy balloon incident, the future can be bright for airships and balloons," Karako said.
The Pentagon is conducting experiments to evaluate how to combine high-altitude balloons and commercial satellites in an attack known as a "kill chain."
China surprised the US Department of Defense in August by testing a hypersonic missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon, which missed its target by about 20 miles.
Russia began ramping up the development of hypersonic weapons, in response to the United States' withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, in 2002.
27.1
One million dollars, the US Department of Defense plans to spend on balloons, in 2023.
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