The nation is developing a fleet of high-altitude balloons and drones to bolster Taiwan’s communications resiliency, the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) said.
The high-altitude communications balloons and drones would serve as the backbone of an Internet network under the nation’s exclusive control, it said.
In October, Taiwan launched its first high-altitude communications balloon carrying hydrogen fuel cells and mobile base stations, MODA Department of Resource Management Director Niu Hsin-jen (牛信仁) told the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) in a recent interview.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Digital Affairs
The program is a collaboration of the ministry, TH Aero Tech (天興航太), the Industrial Technology Research Institute, the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, the National Taipei University of Science and Technology and the nation’s three main telecoms, Niu said.
The domestically developed and manufactured system is designed to control telecommunications networks across a 380km2 area during a military conflict or natural disaster, he said.
Balloons offer important advantages over other platforms, such as being inexpensive and easy to mass produce, making them resilient to attrition, he said.
Unlike satellite deployments that require negotiations with foreign governments on orbits and the usage of frequencies, balloons can use any frequency and be deployed at will within Taiwan’s airspace, he said.
The key technologies of the high-altitude balloons’ design and manufacturing are primarily sourced from the US, the UK, Japan and the Czech Republic, none of which pose a potential national security threat, Niu said.
Airships, balloons and drones are the main types of high-altitude station platforms that can be used for wireless communications, he said, adding that balloons were selected for their superior payload, loiter time and technological maturity.
The government did not develop airships due to the heavy energy consumption required for their deployment, Niu said.
The ministry is next year to increase the operational ceiling of balloons to 800m or higher, enable linkage between balloon-run networks to mimic the capability of satellite constellations and develop a drone-based platform station, he said.
The balloon-based, high-altitude platform station remains an experimental technology, but the potential for commercialization is substantial and could be achieved if a certification system is created, he said.
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