Army, Joint Staff to Test Stratospheric Balloon With Autonomous Sensor Prototype

The Army’s intelligence hub and the Joint Staff’s J-7 will test Project Wallabee, a prototype system that places an autonomous target recognition sensor on a stratospheric high-altitude balloon, in the coming days. A senior Army official told Breaking Defense on Tuesday that the Army’s G-2 is partnering with the J-7’s Warfighter Laboratory Incentive Fund program for the test.

The exercise marks the first time the military will fly manufacturer Urban Sky’s high-altitude balloon carrying Applied Intuition’s small sensor.

Andrew Evans, director for the new Strategy & Transformation Office inside the G-2, said the maturity of sensors able to operate in the stratosphere had been insufficient. The stratosphere begins at about 60,000 feet above the Earth’s surface and presents extreme weather and low air density.

Evans said systems that operate at stratospheric altitudes are very light because they contend with low air density and therefore do not carry heavy payloads.

He added that the payloads the Army has been investing in up until this point have been much heavier and require much more power, rendering them ineffective in the stratosphere. The force needs something lighter that can operate in the vast temperature swings in the stratosphere, Evans said.

Project Wallabee pairs advancements in stratospheric balloons with advancements in miniaturizing sensors that can operate in that environment.

The 3D Multi-Domain Task Force, in conjunction with the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense, launched high-altitude balloons from Won Pat International Airport in Guam on June 10, 2024. The Wallabee prototype is set to provide the Army and the J-7 with additional intelligence-gathering capabilities in the stratosphere.

Evans said the Army and the J-7 want to combine ground, airborne, stratospheric and space-based sensors to create a multi-layered, robust sensing ecosystem.

He said the goal is to field as many sensors from as many different altitudes and sensing domains as possible because that creates important dilemmas for adversaries. Evans said that if forces operate only from the ground or only from space, adversaries gain opportunities to counter capabilities by focusing on exactly what is being done.