According to the March issue of Desider, a magazine published by the British Ministry of Defence, the UK government is investigating the possibility of developing its own high-altitude surveillance airships. This comes on the heels of the controversy surrounding a Chinese “spy balloon” in US airspace.
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The UK defense ministry signed a £100 million ($118.6 million) contract last year to research “stratospheric uncrewed air systems,” according to a report published Monday by The Times. Britain is considering purchasing a fleet of spy balloons, according to the report.
Project Aether is a research initiative that aims to “better understand the stratosphere and the high-altitude platforms that could operate there,” Ross Corbett, the project’s military requirements manager told Desider. The study has been assigned to the Future Capabilities Group of British Defence Equipment and Support, London’s “hub for strategic research and innovation.”
“Successfully exploiting [the stratosphere] could mean enormous potential benefits,” said Corbett. He also stated that much more testing was required before Britain could operate surveillance airships at 50,000 to 80,000 feet above Earth for extended periods of time.
The proposed “high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned air systems” could be used by the UK armed forces and NATO allies for “intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and rebroadcast activities,” according to Corbett.
Project Aether is a collaboration between the American Sierra Nevada Corporation, the British company Voltitude, and the European joint venture Airbus, a global aerospace industry leader. Corbett claims that the research will provide the United Kingdom with a “operational advantage over our adversaries.”
This follows a highly publicized scandal between Washington and Beijing in which the US accused China of flying a “spy balloon” over American soil and shooting it down with a fighter jet. China blasted the US for “overreaction” and insisted it was a civilian airship that had blown off course.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in February that he was ready to shoot down any Chinese balloons if they were spotted in UK airspace. Sunak went on to say that he would “do whatever it takes” to keep his country safe. In an interview with the tabloid The Sun, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace claimed that China has “probably spied” on Britain, adding that “simple things like weather balloons” could be turned into sophisticated surveillance equipment.
