The U.S. Army wants to develop a high-altitude intelligence, cyber and electronic warfare sensor that can fly above enemy territory to provide data and potentially jamming or disruption capability.
The system, dubbed High-Altitude Extended-Range Long Endurance Intelligence Observation System, or HELEIOS, is part of the Multidomain Sensing System family, a series of high-altitude systems that will help the Army cover the vast distances over which it expects to operate in future conflicts.
HELIOS will be an attritable sensor mounted to a solar glide vehicle or a balloon, designed to operate at 60,000 feet or above.
Concepts and technologies the Army is looking for include coherent, distributed, electromagnetic attack; multiple low-power transmitters; and effectors on different balloons or gliders that are coordinated in time in phase to deliver additive jam to signal on a single target.
US; Army mulls development of HELEIOS aerostat stand off cyber/SIGINT array