Military and Strategic Journal
Issued by the Directorate of Morale Guidance at the General Command of the Armed Forces
United Arab Emirates
Founded in August 1971

2021-10-01

Stratospheric UAV Zephyr Offers Satellite-like Solutions

Solar–electric, stratospheric Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Zephyr is not quite an aircraft nor quite a satellite, but incorporates aspects of both.
 
Offering the persistence of a satellite with the flexibility of a UAV, it addresses the need for a cost effective way to provide both persistence and wide satellite like reach, along with the accuracy, station keeping and re-tasking flexibility typically inherent in conventional drone systems.
 
Having already taken to the stratosphere and breaking multiple world records, Zephyr is an innovative solution currently under development by Airbus and is all set to bring new See, Sense and Connect capabilities to commercial, institutional and military customers.
 
Importantly, at a time when around four billion people remain unconnected, Zephyr has the potential to provide communications to the most unconnected parts of the world. No other aerial solution offers direct to device 4G/5G on a persistent day and night basis, complementary to existing infrastructure. 
 
Harnessing Sun’s Rays
The first stratospheric UAV of its kind, Zephyr provides a persistent and adaptable solution, unlike other unmanned aircraft. Its persistence enables a capability of flying continuously for months at a time, above weather and conventional air traffic. It is a HAPS: a High-Altitude Platform Station, and is the only HAPS to have demonstrated day/night longevity in the stratosphere.
 
It harnesses the sun’s rays, running exclusively on solar power, above the weather and conventional air traffic; filling a capability gap complimentary to satellites, UAVs and manned aircraft to provide persistent local satellite-like services. 
 
Zephyr’s battery capabilities ensure the aircraft stays in the stratosphere at a cruise altitude of 60,000-75,000 feet. The aircraft’s carbon fibre airframe, accounting for less than 20 per cent of the total aircraft mass, enables low cruise power at very high altitude, with mass minimisation.
 
Thermal Management
The stratosphere spans just above the Earth’s lower atmosphere to the edge of space. Operating in this zone comes with huge challenges, due to the severe weather conditions with limited moisture and temperatures dropping down to lows of -80°C. This necessitates thermal management to ensure the aircraft stays at optimum temperature for maximum performance.
 
The platform design provides the flexibility to integrate several different payloads, depending on mission and customer needs.
 
OPAZ, the ‘Optical Payload for Zephyr’ is the Airbus in house Earth Observation payload, delivering high quality imagery and video, enabling persistent surveillance, in an accurate manner. OPAZ provides 18cm electro-optical and 70cm infra-red imagery and videos and collects imagery in real time for mapping, change detection or full-motion video streaming, which enables early detection to raise alerts to manned assets. 
 
Zephyr can support a range of payload capabilities, including but not limited to: Electro Optical, Infrared, Hyper spectral, Passive Radio Frequency (RF) Radar, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) radar, Early Warning, Lidar and Automatic Identification System (AIS). It is also able to integrate third-party customer supplied payloads. 
 
Zephyr has wide visual payload coverage of 20 by 30km footprint, which enables it to provide continuous surveillance to meet mission requirements as well as high resolution imagery and video capture for intelligence gathering. 
 
Sensors located in the stratosphere can swiftly detect changes in the environment, gathering more precise data.
 
Connectivity Role
Zephyr has the potential to provide communication to the most unconnected parts of the world with cellular backhaul. It is capable of extending reach and/or capacity of terrestrial network and complementing existing infrastructure, providing low latency, wide coverage and the persistence for station keeping and flexibility to be re-tasked. Where there is no current ground infrastructure, one Zephyr has the coverage equivalent to 250 cell towers, expanding the footprint of terrestrial solutions, in a scalable way. 
 
One Zephyr is capable of up to 100 days continuous flight, and is aiming for more.
 
See and Sense 
Zephyr can bring new see, sense and connect capabilities to Commercial, Military and Institutional customers across the globe and provide the potential to revolutionise disaster management, including monitoring the spread of wildfires or oil spills.
 
The wide visual coverage of 30x40km footprint provides a range of continuous surveillance, high resolution imagery and video capture for intelligence gathering. Sensors located in the stratosphere can readily detect changes in the environment and will be able to provide communications to the most unconnected parts of the world. 
 
Zephyr unlocks the military potential of operationalising the stratosphere with HAPS technology; enhancing decision-making and situational awareness across all military services and in complex layered multi-domain environments. HAPS technology can provide a stratospheric gateway, acquiring data and connecting assets, forwarding information through the gateway for dissemination.  
 
Its commercial capabilities include high service availability, and land and sea monitoring. 
 
Its institutional capability includes monitoring changing environments and supporting with disaster management.
 
Payload Agnostic Zephyr can station keep or be readily re-tasked, travelling up to 1,000 nautical miles per day. It combines the persistence of geostationary satellites with the flexibility and accuracy of a drone.
 
Zephyr has been at the forefront of integration of stratospheric UAS into airspace, gaining civil and military approvals in five countries, across four continents. It is close enough to ground stations to have little latency and offer a real-time service.
 
BLOS Capabilities
After take-off and ascent into the stratosphere within eight hours, Zephyr will navigate to the desired location, which may be hundreds or thousands of kilometres away. It can be controlled from a Ground Control Stations anywhere in the world using Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) capabilities.
 
Flight Tests 
During a 2018 test flight, Zephyr achieved a record 26 days (25 days, 23 hours and 57 minutes) endurance, without refuelling.  It remains the longest flight duration of an aircraft ever made without refuelling. The aircraft persisted in the stratosphere day and night, achieved a dawn altitude of 60,000ft as well as its highest altitude of 71,140ft. 
 
Its 2020 flight campaign succeeded despite global slowdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It focused on aircraft agility, control and operations to build upon previous campaigns, which have proven the day and night stratospheric persistence of the unmanned aerial system (UAS) essential in military and commercial markets. 
 
The campaign held during the first three weeks of November aimed to demonstrate operational flexibility and aircraft agility, particularly testing lower altitude flying and early stage transition to the stratosphere
 
The flights demonstrated take-off, climb, cruise, upgraded flight control and descent phases, followed by successful landings. The objectives of the test campaign were all achieved showcasing a more resilient and capable aircraft.
 
The success of the 2020 flight campaign demonstrated the capability of the aircraft, illustrating Zephyr’s significant advancements. With this, it has come another step closer to an operational reality. 
 
Target Mission
The original target mission was to provide local persistence at an affordable price with a re-usable solar-powered aircraft, providing a wide scope of applications. The ultra-lightweight aircraft has a wingspan of 25 metres and a weight of less than 75kg, and flies above weather (clouds, jet streams) and above regular air traffic, covering local or regional footprints. 
 
Suited for “local persistence” (ISR/Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance), the Zephyr has the ability to stay focused on a specific area of interest (which can even be hundreds of miles wide) while providing it with satellite-like communications and Earth observation services (with greater image granularity) over long periods of time without interruption.
 
Reference Text/Photo:
www.airbus.com 

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