Bus-Sized Uncrewed Airship Being Tested By NATO As Maritime Surveillance Platform
An autonomous monitoring airship not fueled by hydrogen the size of a small bus floated on Portuguese waters, collecting the imagery of ships and other objects. The objective of these test flights is to see if this airship can provide NATO with awareness of the situation in the maritime field.
Flights are part of the annual demonstration of the Alliance in search of new robotic technologies to stimulate its defenses. The airship is one of the many systems that NATO evaluates during this exercise, which is called robotic experimentation and prototyping using unmanned maritime systems (repmus) 25 and dynamic messenger (DYMS) 25. NATO also tests the exercise.
The airship tested is manufactured by Finnish Kelluu Company, which also operates the plane. It is one of 10 that provide images and other detection capacities for commercial and scientific purposes. With NATO already leading maritime security missions, the company sees a potential military role for its airships in order to provide persistent and low level surveillance.
The Kelluu LTA is relatively small with regard to the airships, forcing approximately 12 meters long. It can fly up to around 12 hours at low level, the company indicates. They are designed to wear an assortment of sensors, including electro-optical / infrared cameras and passive systems that can detect electromagnetic emissions. Capable of launching from austere sites without tracks, these airships operate “very quietly and without emissions, providing real-time connectivity without being limited by Radio-Link Ranges (BRLOS),” said the CEO of Janne Hietala on Wednesday.
NATO officials did not want to develop a particular system participating in Repmus25. However, they discussed the overall objectives of this demonstration.
“All these systems require experimentation and integration into the operational environment”, CMDR. Arlo Abrahamson, spokesperson for the NATO allied maritime command, said Twz Wednesday. “We want to place these systems in the hands of our operators and ensure that these systems meet the operational requirements of the Allied forces.”
Dynamic Messenger / Repmus strives to bring new unmanned systems in the operational environment by obtaining user comments to stimulate development, Abrahamson told us. With the tests always done, it is too early to say if or how an airship would be useful for NATO operations, noted Abrahamson.
Earlier this year, the Alliance resisted Operation Baltic Sentry in response to several cases of submarine cable sabotage which would have been carried out by China and Russia. In one of these incidents, the Finnish authorities claim that Russian Eagle S He deliberately dragged his anchor on the seabed to break the underwater cables. The ship was then found lots of spy equipment. The Finnish authorities have arrested the ship and its crew, which you can see in the next video.
One of the main objectives of Baltic Sentry is to provide additional persistent monitoring to better follow ships. This in turn is intended to ensure a faster response to ships acting in suspect way.
The case could be made that the airships in general could potentially benefit from such a mission because of their long detection capacities, as well as their efficiency. It does not take much imagination to see the potential that the deployment of a larger number of these unrelated airships in a large area can provide a drastic increase in the awareness of the situation. This distributed approach to persistent sea surveillance using systems not linked to extended endurance aroused a major interest in soldiers from around the world.
Overall, the United States and other nations develop or use more and more lighter craft than air for these reasons. The Chinese spy ball incident brought this reality to the headlines.
In addition, China, in particular, as we have frequently noted, seems to invest massively in lighter technologies than air. A huge hangar in a region distant from the northwest of the country is a key example. The war zone followed activities in the installation, which is linked to the country’s development by high altitude leaders who could potentially collect information, facilitate long -range communications, provide early alert capacities for anti -missile defense, or even serve as launch platforms for drones and other useful charges.
Balloons, airships and aerostats have a long history as surveillance and maritime patrol platforms and transport aircraft.
Kelluu’s unrelated concept is a renovation so that the role of maritime patrol of lighter crafts than air dating from the First World War and widely used during the Second World War.
However, several fatal accidents and misadventures in the past have created a headwind for the development and terrain of these systems.
There seems to be an increasing interest in the airship of Kelluu.
The Finnish Air Force tested the Kelluu LTA in June. It was the first time an airship had participated in Atlantic Trident 25, a two -week tactical and operational training exercise was held on several locations in Finland.
“Airships complete high-level information with low-altitude precision data and multi-capital capacities that support awareness of the situation in real time,” said Finnish Air Force on X at the time.
The Finnish Air Force has not provided details on what, if necessary, plans to test or use Kelluu airships. We contacted comments. Kelluu refused to comment.
There are also at least two other NATO assessments in the work for Kelluu. The airships of the company will participate in the experimentation of the NATO digital backbone (Dibax) in Latvia. The objective of this exercise is to “test the use of unmanned vehicles in disputed environments and the application of artificial intelligence in detection and decision -making tasks”.
Kelluu’s unrelated airship is also evaluated by NATO’s Diana accelerator program, which seeks to find and develop emerging technology.
There is no calendar for the deployment of one of the technologies tested by NATO. Regardless of what is happening with the airship of Kelluu, the alliance is clearly interested in seeing if platforms as it can help protect its member countries.
Update: 9:48 am Eastern –
The NATO Diana accelerator program has provided some additional details on Kelluu’s participation of these NATO programs:
“”NATO Diana’s mission is to locate and speed up new technologies in the commercial sector which can be adapted for the use of defense. NATO end users, Allied soldiers, the university world, industry and other partners play a key role in identifying the challenges that NATO could be confronted now and in the future.
We send these challenges to businesses and select companies that are technologically achievable, commercially viable and could be adopted for defense purposes. In the end, we want to move these emerging and disturbing technologies in the hands of the final defense user to ensure that NATO maintains its technological edge.
Kelluu was chosen for phase 1 and phase 2 of NATO Diana’s accelerator program due to the potential of their military technology. In Diana, they were exposed to military end users, investors, industry representatives and had the opportunity to network and engage with stakeholders in the NATO innovation ecosystem.
Kelluu operates a persistent aerial detection grid of long -term and hydrogen airships that offer continuous intelligence for safety and critical infrastructure. They provide availability and decision -making data as a service, eliminating the need for customers to buy or maintain equipment. Kelluu platforms offer silent endurance without emissions to a fraction of conventional costs, proven in arctic and defense deployments.
Kelluu was selected to participate in Repmus / Dynamic Messenger because they aligned themselves on the objectives and the mission of the operational experience (OPEX). NATO Diana has a mandate to ensure that a number of our innovators attend OPEX opportunities.
Repmus / Dynamic Messenger will offer Kelluu and other NATO innovators in Diana a unique opportunity to participate in operational experimentation in a maritime environment living alongside NATO allies. Participation in military operations and exercises allows companies to iterate and bring their technology closer to use it in a defense framework, and, ultimately, adoption by an allied nation.
Our rapid adoption service offers NATO Diana the ability to work with stakeholders among all allies who recognize a viable solution, wish to follow its progress and, potentially, acquire a prototype which can then be validated. The objective is to put technology in the adoption routes which make the acquisition possible for the Allied nations. »»
Contact the author: Howard@thewarzone.com
