Exercise Cold Raptor: Micro-HAB Launches from Powidz, Poland

The U.S. Army ran a week of micro high-altitude balloon (micro-HAB) launches from Powidz, Poland, in late July 2026 under the name Exercise Cold Raptor. Details below are from U.S. Army Europe and Africa and Stars and Stripes reporting released 18–20 August.

Unit and people

• Conducted by the Extended Range Sensing and Effects Company, 2nd Multi-Domain Effects Battalion, under Multi-Domain Command – Europe (MDC-E), headquartered in Mainz-Kastel, Germany.
• Commanding general: Brig. Gen. Steven P. Carpenter. Chief technology officer: Maj. Don Duong.
• Many operators hold MOS 25S — satellite communication systems operator-maintainer, reassigned from satellite terminals to high-altitude platforms.
• Within the company, balloons sit alongside UAS and electronic warfare as part of one sensing effort.

Platform

• Operating altitude: 60,000–70,000 ft (18,300–21,400 m).
• Payload capacity: 9–20 kg (20–45 lb), per a manufacturer datasheet provided by the command. The manufacturer was not named.
• Payload types the platform can carry: ISR sensors, communications equipment, and electromagnetic warfare payloads including navigation warfare.
• Payloads flown at Cold Raptor specifically: communications extension and domain awareness.
• Maj. Duong described the platform as providing "organic coverage and dynamic augmentation," and as a "cost-effective and responsive, launch-on-demand" way to carry payloads — flying above weather and congested airspace to provide coverage in complex terrain.

Flight profile

• Launch site: Powidz, a U.S. logistics and aviation hub in western Poland. Night launches; photographed 28 July 2026.
• Recovery: near Ustka on the Baltic coast, roughly 306 km (190 miles) north of the launch site.
• Recovery was a combined U.S.–Polish operation. Polish forces had not previously worked with this platform in Poland; U.S. soldiers gave hands-on demonstrations of the equipment and launch process.

What was tested

• Procedures for launching, controlling, monitoring and recovering the balloons.
• Decentralised operation: the launch team worked at Powidz while a separate pilot team, in a different location, managed and monitored the flight trajectory — the exercise tested whether the two teams could maintain communications throughout.
• Operating experimental hardware under field conditions, with troubleshooting during the week; data collected to support continued experimentation.
• Airspace coordination with Polish authorities. Launches had to meet fixed windows: "Whenever we're contacting airspace control, they're expecting these terminals to be in the air at specific times," said Sgt. Eric Atwater Jr.
• Environmental factors specific to the theatre: Baltic wind currents and temperature variation across stratospheric layers.

Context

• Cold Raptor sat under NATO's Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative, a NATO-led regional initiative supported by U.S. Army Europe and Africa.
• It followed more than 50 micro-HAB launches over the past year by MDC-E.
• Prior sites: National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California (April 2026) — simultaneous launches from separate locations requiring clearances from different airspace agencies; Tehachapi, California (22 April 2026); Fort Huachuca, Arizona (May 2025).
• In Europe before Poland: three micro-HABs launched from Kosta, Sweden, during exercises Sword 26 and Aurora 26, carrying experimental sensing and communications payloads through the Baltic region.
• Next step: MDC-E evaluates the Poland results and shares findings with the Army offices that decide whether new equipment should be developed or purchased.

Not disclosed

• The specific capabilities tested and the operational requirements the command was addressing.
• Cost per balloon or per mission — the command said details could not be discussed outside the Defense Department.
• Payload vendors and the balloon manufacturer.
• Number of balloons launched during Cold Raptor.

Sources: U.S. Army, Stars and Stripes, Militarnyi. Earlier exercises: HAPS over the Baltic.