analysis
Erbil Update: The TARS Aerostat Was Destroyed on 2 September
Six weeks after the ground facility was burnt out, an IRGC drone and missile attack took the U.S. TARS over Erbil out of the air. Two hits on one fixed site.
military
haps
Exercise Cold Raptor: Micro-HAB Launches from Powidz, Poland
Details of the U.S. Army's July 2026 micro high-altitude balloon exercise in Poland: unit, altitudes, payloads, recovery, airspace coordination, and the prior launches it built on.
analysis
The Stratosphere as an Operational Domain: SASC Language and Urban Sky's APFIT Award
The Senate Armed Services Committee recognized the stratosphere as an emerging operational domain in its FY2026 NDAA report. Urban Sky's $11.3M APFIT award funds production and fielding of a stratospheric platform — not first-time funding for the category.
analysis
The U.S. Army Keeps Buying Surveillance Aerostats. We're Building Connectivity for Contested Areas.
The U.S. Army just renewed its tethered-aerostat surveillance program through 2031. It confirms the category is here to stay — and it draws a clean line between what legacy aerostats are for and what we are building.
analysis
Big Radar Aerostats Have Become Too Easy to Kill
A cheap drone or missile was enough to knock out a strategic radar aerostat — and it has now happened twice. The lesson isn't "build a tougher big aerostat" — it's the opposite.
analysis
Radionor's CRE2 Is Now I-BEAM
Radionor rebranded CRE2 to I-BEAM. The point worth making is the antenna: phased array gives you directional gain without the pointing problem.
haps
HAPS Missions into Russia: 77 Alerts, Mapped
An open-source map of HAPS alerts over Russia, aggregated from open Russian sources.
News
From Experiment to Procurement: The U.S. Army Issues Its First Balloon Acquisition Notice
After months of swarm exercises, the U.S. Army just issued its first formal procurement notice for high-altitude balloon systems.
haps
HAPS over the Baltic — and this is not an isolated case
In early May 2026, the U.S. Army conducted a training exercise over the Baltic region: Micro-HABs launched from Sweden and landed in Latvia after 24–30 hours of flight at altitudes above 18,000 meters. The stated objective — validating sensors and communications relay under real operational conditions. Over