The CIOMP stratospheric airship is a yet unknown class of high-altitude
airship
An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying powered aircraft, under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the ...
developed by the
, as a means to
counter-stealth from stealth fighters of adversarial nations, specifically the
F-22 and
F-35
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, supersonic stealth strike fighters. A multirole combat aircraft designed for both air superiority and strike missions, it also has electronic warf ...
.
Design and development
The airship is still currently undergoing testing and experimentation and it is unknown if the dirigible would be classified as a
blimp
A non-rigid airship, commonly called a blimp (Help:IPA/English, /blɪmp/), is an airship (dirigible) without an internal structural framework or a keel. Unlike semi-rigid airship, semi-rigid and rigid airships (e.g. Zeppelins), blimps rely on th ...
or a
rigid airship
A rigid airship is a type of airship (or dirigible) in which the Aerostat, envelope is supported by an internal framework rather than by being kept in shape by the pressure of the lifting gas within the envelope, as in blimps (also called pres ...
. What is known, is that the airship would be constructed as a
drone
Drone or The Drones may refer to:
Science and technology Vehicle
* Drone, a type of uncrewed vehicle, a class of robot
** Unmanned aerial vehicle or aerial drone
*** Unmanned combat aerial vehicle
** Unmanned ground vehicle or ground drone
** Unma ...
, which would make it a substantially large
UAV
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone ...
, as it would be a 150 meters long.
The main role of the airship, as aforementioned, would be in counter-stealth
AEW&C. Reports indicate that the vessel would be equipped with special infrared sensors that can detect stealth aircraft more effectively than radar.
Their argument suggest that the infrared sensors should be able to pick-apart the engines of stealth fighters, which would glow at 1,000 Kelvin; emitting a mid-wave infrared radiation three times stronger than that of its airframe.
The airship would use a mercury-cadmium-telluride detector along with multiple 300mm aperture telescopes, which would allow it to concentrate on the 2.8-4.3 micrometre wavelength range, where atmospheric interference is minimal.
In theory, the researchers believe that the unmanned airship would be able to detect an F-35’s rear and side thermal signature from over 1,800 km away when operating at a atmospheric height of 20km.
Of course, the frontal profile of such stealth aircraft would still be hard to detect due to its much cooler thermal signature of around 281 Kelvin (7.85 degrees Celsius or 46 Fahrenheit) that will reduce viable detection range to just 350km.
The researchers suggest that a constellation of these airships would be able to triangulate the target, overcome blind spots and increase their collective detection range.
The main advantage for these airships, is that they are technologically cheap and operate in a "sweet spot"; higher than traditional AEW&C aircraft but closer than satellites.
The cheapness to produce means that even a 50% loss would not significantly cripple the early warning and detection capability of China's surveillance grid. Disadvantages are their large size, vulnerability to interceptors and comparatively slow speed of only a 120 km/hr (74 mph).
Specifications
References
Airships of China
Drone warfare
Early warning systems
{{improve categories, date=February 2025