Mentioned:Israel Aerospace IndustriesELTA Systems
Israel Aerospace Industries unveiled POINT@AIR, a tethered balloon-carried AESA radar, at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual meeting in October 2026. The compact system detects and tracks air, sea and ground targets to provide mobile elevated surveillance without permanent infrastructure.
What's happening
- IAI displayed POINT@AIR at AUSA 2026, a compact aerostat-mounted active electronically scanned array radar derived from the ELM-2083 family.
- The system uses a tethered helium-filled balloon to raise a radar above ground, enabling 360-degree detection of low-flying aircraft, drones and sea and ground targets.
- POINT@AIR prioritizes detected targets and feeds data to command-and-control systems while remaining mobile and requiring no permanent infrastructure.
- IAI did not disclose the radar's range, operating altitude, crew size, price or announce any customers.
Why it matters
- Elevated radar placement overcomes terrain and curvature-of-Earth limitations that ground-based systems face when detecting low-flying threats.
- Mobile aerostat radar fills a gap for expeditionary ground forces where fixed early-warning radar networks cannot be deployed quickly.
- ELTA Systems, IAI's subsidiary, has supplied the larger ELM-2083 to multiple countries including India, signaling potential for allied adoption of this compact variant.
Going deeper
- POINT@AIR is a scaled-down reimagining of the ELM-2083, which derives from Israel's Green Pine radar used in the Arrow missile defense system.
- The U.S. Army's history with aerostat systems is mixed. It operated camera-carrying aerostats in Iraq and Afghanistan but canceled the JLENS cruise missile defense program in 2015 after one aerostat broke free over Pennsylvania.
The intrigue
- No U.S. customer announcement suggests POINT@AIR remains in development or sales phase, leaving unclear whether the Army will adopt the system or pursue alternatives.
The fine print
- IAI disclosed no operational specifications, pricing, production timeline or customer commitments for POINT@AIR as of October 2026.
Source: defence-blog.com · Oct 11, 2026 · Drafted with Claude, reviewed by Industrial Base Alpha.
