NATO Tests Unmanned Airship as Maritime Surveillance Platform
An unmanned hydrogen-powered autonomous surveillance airship the size of a small bus has been floating over Portuguese waters, collecting imagery of ships and other objects. The goal of these test flights is to see if this airship can provide NATO with situational awareness of the maritime domain.
The flights are part of the alliance’s annual demonstration seeking new robotic technology to boost its defenses. The airship is one of several systems that NATO is evaluating during this exercise, which is called Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping using Maritime Unmanned Systems (REPMUS) 25 and Dynamic Messenger (DYMS) 25. NATO is also trialing unmanned surface and underwater vehicles, as well as other aerial ones, as part of the exercise.
The airship being tested is made by the Finnish Kelluu company, which also operates the aircraft. It is one of about 10 that are providing imagery and other sensing capabilities for commercial and scientific purposes. With NATO already conducting maritime security missions, the company sees a potential military role for its airships to provide persistent, low-level surveillance.
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The Kelluu LTA is relatively small as far as airships go, clocking-in at about 12 meters long. It can fly for up to about 12 hours at low level, the company states. They are designed to carry an assortment of sensors, including electro-optical/infrared cameras and passive systems that can detect electromagnetic emissions. Able to launch from austere locations with no runways, these airships operate “very quietly and without emissions, providing real-time connectivity without being limited by radio-link ranges (BRLOS),” company CEO Janne Hietala told us on Wednesday.
NATO officials did not want to elaborate on any particular system taking part in REPMUS25. However, they did discuss the overall goals for this demonstration.
“All of these systems require experimentation and integration into the operational environment,” Cmdr. Arlo Abrahamson, spokesperson for NATO’s Allied Maritime Command, told TWZ on Wednesday. “We want to place these systems in the hands of our operators and ensure those systems meet the operational requirements of Allied forces.”
Dynamic Messenger/REPMUS is working to bring new unmanned systems into the operational environment by gaining user feedback to spur development, Abrahamson told us. With the tests still being conducted, it is too early to say if or how an airship would be useful for NATO operations, Abrahamson noted.
Source: The War Zone
