NATO

 

By SHATYRA COX 
STARS AND STRIPES

Published August 20, 2026 ·  Updated August 20, 2026

 

Soldiers work with vendors to launch a micro high-altitude balloon during an exercise at the National Training Center, at Fort Irwin, Calif., in April 2026. The balloons float in the stratosphere and can carry intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensors, communications equipment and electromagnetic warfare payloads. (Victoria Connell/U.S. Army)

At roughly 60,000 feet above Poland, small balloons flew higher than commercial airliners as part of an Army test to determine whether the stratosphere could provide another place for battlefield sensors and communications equipment.

The Army recently launched the micro high-altitude balloons from Powidz, a major U.S. military logistics and aviation hub in western Poland, as part of Cold Response.