Project Director Sensors-Aerial Intelligence (PD-SAI) joined more than 5,600 personnel from 30 nations in participating at this year’s African Lion exercise to experiment with cutting edge technologies, including micro High-Altitude Balloons (μHABs). African Lionis U.S. Africa Command's (AFRICOM) largest annual combined, joint exercise. It is a multi-domain, multi-component, and multinational event designed to strengthen interoperability and regional security. The exercise focused on joint all-domain operations, crisis response, and multinational interoperability in Morocco, Ghana, Senegal, and Tunisia.
PD SAI sponsored an industry partner to test the Stratos Dark Wing capability, a high-altitude, stratospheric surveillance and communication system, including an exquisite kinetic effect and SATCOM integrated onto a μHAB. The μHABs are low-cost, high-altitude, and low-observable platforms that can be quickly launched by tactical units in the field.
Operating in the stratosphere at an altitude of 60,000 feet or more, these systems provide persistent local situational awareness, communication extension, and the deployment of Launched Effects (LE) using specialized payload sensors.
PD SAI evaluated three critical capabilities for the warfighter; situational awareness through persistent Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR), communication extension and the ability to provide an elevated relay node for troops on the ground in austere environments, the ability to deploy and control small uncrewed systems and sensor payloads directly from high-altitude balloons. Chief Warrant Officer 3 Zachary Pickard, Aviation Mission Survivability Officer, represented PD SAI equities by observing the Stratos Dark Wing launches and evaluating the capability from the deck of the U.S. Army Vessel, Maj. Gen. Charles P. Gross in the Atlantic Ocean.
Pickard explained that Soldiers typically launch μHABs from land. For this exercise, the team wanted to understand how sea launches affect trajectories in different atmospheric conditions.
“From the ocean they based calculation on the winds knowing the balloons would fly over the water,” Pickard said. Medium HABs and μHABs do not have rudders or engines but use ballast to find specific wind currents.
“They usually carry GPSs for tracking, but for this exercise they added a secondary external GPS for additional tracking to see exactly where they were landing.”
A Special Forces Group (SFG) launched the μHABs – six launches in total – with training and assistance from on-site engineers. The Soldiers intentionally landed one μHAB in the sea and the other five landed up to 90 kilometers away on land.
The exercise successfully demonstrated Soldiers’ ability to deploy and control the integrated system, integrate into a network and support accurate targeting. “They were able to hit all the targets as intended,” said Pickard. Feedback from the SFG assessed the system as a “value added system that provides Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) and strike options at the SOF [Special Operations Forces] level.”
| Date Taken: |
06.01.2026 |
| Date Posted: |
06.11.2026 10:08 |
| Story ID: |
567422 |
| Location: |
US |
| Web Views: |
26 |
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0 |
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