NAL to Test Flight Full-Scale High-Altitude Platform System (HAPS) by Dec 2025, Promises Unprecedented 90-Day Endurance at Stratospheric Altitudes

The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) is poised to achieve a major breakthrough in aerospace technology with the upcoming test flight of its full-scale High-Altitude Platform System (HAPS) by December 2025. This ambitious project signifies a significant step towards India's self-reliance in advanced surveillance and communication technologies.

HAPS are unmanned aerial vehicles designed to operate in the stratosphere, approximately 18 to 20 kilometers above sea level. Occupying a space between conventional aircraft and satellites, HAPS offer a unique blend of capabilities. They provide persistent, wide-area coverage similar to satellites, but with the added flexibility and cost-effectiveness of an aircraft.

NAL's HAPS is designed to achieve an unprecedented endurance of up to 90 days, pushing the boundaries of airborne persistence. This remarkable feat is made possible by advanced gallium arsenide solar panels, which are significantly more efficient than traditional silicon-based cells, allowing the HAPS to harness solar energy for sustained operation.

From its stratospheric perch, the HAPS will be instrumental in a variety of applications, including surveillance, border monitoring, disaster management, and delivering broadband internet connectivity to remote and underserved regions.

The upcoming full-scale test flight follows successful trials of a smaller-scale HAPS prototype in 2024. These tests demonstrated the viability of the concept, with the prototype flying at 3,000 feet equipped with a synthetic aperture radar payload and later at 25,000 feet without the payload.

Further demonstrating India's growing prowess in aerospace engineering, NAL is developing the autopilot system software in-house, while the hardware will be sourced externally.

The successful development and deployment of the full-scale HAPS will undoubtedly position India as a leader in this emerging field, with far-reaching implications for the nation's defence, communication, and disaster response capabilities.

 

[Ronin]

Very useful for communication in individual theatre's during enemy blockout and interruption..

 

[Enforcer]

I like this quite a bit. In case we get our satellites shot down during war, these can we deployed as good backup. Obviously more civilian uses are there.

We can provide our allies with satellite communication in case of their own war/conflict. Similar to Space x providing coms to Ukraine.

But are they advanced enough to handle large number of users and advanced cryptography?

 

[Sandeep]

The HAPS is mainly ideal to carry out long range 24/7 ISTAR mission in a particular area for 90 days which is much better than what any other drone can achieve. Also I think that we can develop a version of HAPS that can last for longer than 90 days.

In terms of using this as a long term satellite to provide internet, phone or TV connection and access for 90 days isn’t a long term, reliable or viable solution as we would have to keep launching the HAPS every 90 days which would not be cost effective. In a war we can certainly use this to provide our military and civilians an urgent communication networks in an area if we lost satellite coverage on a temporary basis.

 

[Rational Guy]

I like this quite a bit. In case we get our satellites shot down during war, these can we deployed as good backup. Obviously more civilian uses are there.

We can provide our allies with satellite communication in case of their own war/conflict. Similar to Space x providing coms to Ukraine.

But are they advanced enough to handle large number of users and advanced cryptography?

Well we should make sure our satellites are never even shot down in the first place by deterrence: we need to develop satellites armed with DEW and laser weapons of 25-30 kW and make them highly agile/manuverable.

 

[Bhishma]

But are they advanced enough to handle large number of users and advanced cryptography?

It will be done through relay servers. Scalability/security can be achieved at the cloud level

 

[Bhishma]

Interesting point to note is SAR. This can be used as a way to defeat the stealth advantage of enemy jets. 5G jets are designed with frontal stealth. Since it will be scanning from the top, those jets can be easily detected. So during an active conflict, we can fly them in our airspace near the border. It can act as a localized satellite always scanning an area of interest. If the enemy moves their 5G jets, it will be detected early on.

 

[Dipesh Debnath]

Interesting point to note is SAR. This can be used as a way to defeat the stealth advantage of enemy jets. 5G jets are designed with frontal stealth. Since it will be scanning from the top, those jets can be easily detected. So during an active conflict, we can fly them in our airspace near the border. It can act as a localized satellite always scanning an area of interest. If the enemy moves their 5G jets, it will be detected early on.

The band of radar frequency is important. SAR uses X C L bands that have small wavelenght compared to VHF signal thatvhas 10-1 m wavelengh needed for stealth surface detection. Stealth RCS is very small, so need to capture larger surface in one signature.

 

[Dipesh Debnath]

There should be a laser reflector to reflect/redirect a high power ground based laser towards targets from high altitude. Then it can be used in jamming electronics.