The U.S. Army is expanding a high-altitude balloon swarm experiment in the Indo-Pacific, increasing the number of platforms to about 200 and incorporating NORAD to help track the balloons. The aim is to explore how large-scale intel sensing could work and to operationalize the stratosphere for a potential early-phase conflict.
Key statements from the Army official emphasize the swarm as a dispersed, attritable intelligence-gathering tool at the outset of hostilities or in the immediate aftermath of geopolitical incidents. The concept prioritizes volume and mass disruption to complicate an adversary’s understanding of the airspace, sensors, and capabilities.
“We’re using this both to define what intel sensing could look like at scale [and] operationalizing the stratosphere for a phase one-type conflict,” Andrew Evans, director for the Strategy & Transformation Office in the Army’s G-2, told Breaking Defense.
Details disclosed by the official indicate:
- The number of potential balloons has doubled from an earlier estimate, reaching about 200.
- NORAD offered to use its ground-based radars to track the floating assets, enabling better visualization of how a swarm would appear to U.S. observers and informing both offensive and defensive planning.
- The U.S. Coast Guard is also expected to assist in tracking the balloons as part of the broader “Lego building” approach to the high-altitude experiment.
- The project, now referred to as the Swarming Worldwide Autonomous Reconnaissance in the Multi-domain System (SWARMS), is planned as a multi-wave launch, with some balloons acting as decoys and others carrying sensors, jammers, or faux-kinetic effects.
- Initial plans call for launching balloons within 1,000 miles of Hawaii from both islands and affiliated naval assets, with the goal of demonstrating phased use and potential mass disruption of the stratosphere.
Context and expected outcomes described by the official suggest the exercise will provide data and insights to integrate stratospheric assets into Army and joint force architecture, informing future acquisition and tactics. The event is part of preparations for a 2026 demonstration, with a preliminary $3.5 million budget for the mission and ongoing refinements to the concept of operations.
“The data and insights from this experiment will directly inform our strategy for integrating stratospheric assets into our Army and joint force architecture,” Evans noted in related remarks.
Overall, the initiative envisions a scalable, dispersed balloon swarm capable of rapid deployment to gather intelligence, test communications, and probe adversary reactions, while leveraging decoys and massed sensors to complicate enemy targeting and situational awareness.
Авторское резюме: Развертывание 200-баллонной эпсилон-операции SWARMS демонстрирует массовый подход к стратосферной разведке, объединяя NORAD и Coast Guard для повышения точности слежения и нейтрализации противника, при этом сохраняется фокус на массе и дезориентации соперника, с запланированным запуском в 2026 году и бюджетом около 3,5 миллиона долларов.
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