On Friday, April 3, 2026, Russian state corporation Rostec announced that specialists from Moscow-based Roselektronika holding had unveiled a prototype of a new aerostat equipped with a communications signal relay module for hard-to-reach areas.
Photo: Rostiech
The aircraft has already been tested in 4G/LTE communications networks (2100 MHz) and has been delivered to a customer. In March of this year, Russia’s largest mobile operator, MTS (Mobile TeleSystems), became the first to test the aerostat with an LTE base station in Volsk, Saratov Oblast. Unlike conventional base stations, because the radio module is elevated into the air, the terrain has virtually no effect on communication quality.
The aerostat rises several hundred meters above the ground and is mounted to a mooring device to prevent it from drifting away. It is an unpowered platform secured by cables. The radio module, equipped with an omnidirectional antenna installed aboard the aerostat, enables mobile communications within a 10-km radius at speeds of 30 Mbit/s, a Rostec representative said.
As Rostec emphasizes, the tested system can quickly solve communications problems in remote, sparsely populated, and hard-to-reach areas, at sites where extractive industries operate, in accident or natural disaster zones, as well as over various bodies of water and at public events such as sports competitions, festivals, and the like.
Roselektronika’s tethered aerostat has an envelope volume of 240 cubic meters and can lift a payload of up to 45 kg to an altitude of up to 300 meters. The craft can remain aloft for up to one month. The radio module is powered via a composite cable.
Other aerostats
In Russia, similar aerostats for signal relay had already been under development for more than a decade, although the one presented by Rostec is a smaller solution optimized for civilian mobile communications (LTE/4G). Earlier models were developed mainly for military needs, although civilian prototypes also existed.
Quite recently, on February 12 of this year, the Zapora-1 aerostat was tested. It was developed by AO Aerodrommash of Veliky Novgorod in cooperation with the Bauman Moscow State Technical University on behalf of the Foundation for Advanced Research (FPI). It can operate at a much greater altitude, up to 20,000 m in the stratosphere, carrying a payload of 100 kg while providing long-range 5G NTN (Non-Terrestrial Network) communications. It is not a tethered device and maneuvers in accordance with wind direction.
In 2017, based on the Peresvet multipurpose aerostat developed by the Dolgoprudny Design Bureau of Automatics (DKBA), which is part of Roselektronika, a variant with a communications suite for army signal brigades was developed. It could carry 300 kg of equipment to an altitude of up to 3.5 km, operate for up to 15 days without helium refueling, and was intended for transmitting large amounts of data and providing long-range radio communications.
A year earlier, Concern Sozvezdie tested aerostat relays equipped with an AESA antenna (in Russian terminology, AFAR). They were intended to provide a secure Wi-Fi network over distances of more than 200 km, connect mobile and stationary command posts, and operate without GLONASS satellite communications.
However, as early as 2001, the BARS system carried out a trial launch. It was used, among other things, to provide Internet access, including in tests conducted in schools in Moscow. In addition, from the 1970s and 1980s, DKBA had been developing aerostats for radio/television relay and military purposes.
Older models were usually larger, with volumes reaching several thousand cubic meters, and were geared toward military applications. The new Rostec aerostat is smaller, more mobile, mounted on a vehicle trailer, and specifically optimized for commercial cellular communications.