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Combat Balloon Lifts Off

April 26, 2006

Combat Balloon Lifts Off: A host of combat experiments are under way this week during the 2006 Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment, including one that will employ balloons staged in “near space” to aid line-of-sight communications on the ground. Dubbed “Combat Skysat,” the program places a radio repeater-linked to a weather-type balloon in near space—the layer of the atmosphere between aircraft airspace and satellites. The repeater can “bounce” ground transmission, extending the range and making them clearer. The balloon takes about 20 minutes to launch and can stay in the air an average of 12 hours per flight.

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