28.06.2026
Knowledge is power. Nowhere is this maxim more relevant than in the world of defence intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). Knowing what is ahead, what's normal, and what is out of place is a decisive factor in managing threats. It allows forces to find, fix, and target adversaries and their systems in times of war. It provides early warning of potential threats so that forces can respond appropriately in peacetime. And it provides a deterrent effect that can be decisive in preventing so-called "grey zone" provocations from escalating into conflict.
Airborne ISR is uniquely powerful
Lifting sensors into the sky lets them see further and over the horizon. Intelligence about what is happening, or what might be about to happen, can be collected from signals, messages or other electronic emissions like radar. Surveillance allows us to understand what - and who - is where, doing what, over periods of time, so that we can pick out what is changing and what might be a threat. Reconnaissance allows us to press forward, probing for deeper understanding of developing threats.
This makes ISR aircraft very valuable, important assets, but they are expensive and hence limited in number. They also have poor endurance. Few - if any - NATO member states have adequate ISR capacity across all domains and from the strategic to the tactical realms, meaning that forces operate with many gaps in coverage. Each of these gaps is a blind spot that can be exploited by adversaries. Scarce ISR assets are often directed towards apparent threats, but this is not a completely reliable process.
The icy issue of the ISR gap in the Arctic
In the High North a relative lack of air bases adds to the lack of capable aircraft, meaning that airborne ISR is very limited…
- Very few ships can penetrate the ice.
- Satellite coverage is limited, as geostationary satellites are below the horizon at high latitudes and satellites in polar orbit usually make only one pass per day over a given place.
- Ground sensors provide some coverage of the airspace, looking upward to space above the polar skies but cannot see far to detect threats at lower altitudes.
- Submarines are occasional visitors under the ice.
As climate change makes the Arctic more accessible, forces have very few available options to monitor movements and co-ordinate responses.
Gaps like this are strategic and structural, meaning they are not easy to close. Filling them requires investment across platforms, infrastructure, systems, personnel, communications, and training. At July's NATO summit, Canada unveiled its largest defence investment ever, the acquisition of 12 submarines expected to cost up to 100 billion Canadian dollars through their service life. At the same summit, the selection of Sweden's SAAB and Canada's Bombardier to replace NATO's Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft (AWACS) was announced. Meanwhile, the US is acquiring 11 new icebreakers from Finland at a cost of $6.1bn.
Despite these high-profile moves, positioning conventional aircraft for long-term surveillance in the High North remains prohibitively expensive. This is something that we are working to address with Airlander. Airlander can operate in these environments with minimal ground infrastructure, flying for long periods of time with multiple co-hosted sensors with the same or greater mass than large fixed-wing aircraft. With Airlander, a small number of aircraft operating from limited infrastructure deliver a major uplift in ISR capability. This significant increase in aircraft productivity compared with fixed-wing platforms means a genuinely persistent ISR capability could be achieved within similar budgets and crew requirements to those used today.
Transformative benefits of closing gaps
Other gaps are tactical. Many military aircrew have visited Airlander and flown our simulator. Several have told us that their worst moments were those when they had to return to base for refuelling, leaving comrades vulnerable on the ground without air cover. These blind spots may be temporary, but their impact on people and on the operations they are performing are profound. When we explain that Airlander's fuel reserves could allow it to stay on station in such circumstances for days, alongside its high payload carrying capacity, our aircrew visitors acknowledge that Airlander has the potential to change the game in battlefield ISR by saving lives and deterring threats.