Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress he has made in developing lighter-than-air platforms designed for extended loiter times.

Cyber and Specialist Operations Command has sponsored two extended-duration lighter-than-air trials under Project AETHER.

Payload testing on the first extended-duration trial was successful and validated the plans to achieve extended loiter times. The second trial used an alternative approach with multiple, smaller stratospheric balloons operating collaboratively in sequence and demonstrating near-continuous Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance coverage for an extended duration.