Tether
Rapid-deploy tethered aerostat — persistent EO/IR overwatch, mast-up in under an hour.
Tether is overwatch you can stand up before lunch. A helium aerostat carries a stabilized EO/IR ball to altitude on a single tether that also delivers power and a fibre datalink — no batteries to swap, no downlink to lose.
It is the simplest expression of the Vigil thesis: a sensor that holds station indefinitely over a fixed site, a forward base, or the deck of a Segal hull, raised and recovered by a two-person ground crew in under an hour.
The airframe is uncontrolled; the high-end sensor packages are not. Controlled payloads are redacted on the public sheet and unlock in the configurator only after an eligibility attestation.
Raises from a naval hull for maritime overwatch in the same fused picture as Tideline.
// BASE SPECIFICATIONS
- Span
- 12 m
- Length
- 18 m
- Lift system
- Helium aerostat, tethered
- Base payload
- 220 kg
- Base endurance
- 360 h
- Endurance
- 360 h
- Ceiling
- 1,500 m
- Crew
- 0
Flying today — rapid-deploy units available to eligible operators.
// CONFIGURABLE OPTIONS
This airframe carries export-controlled items under ITAR/EAR. Controlled options are redacted here and unlock in the configurator only after an eligibility attestation.
Mission profiles
- ISRPersistent fixed-box overwatch.
Lift / propulsion
- Helium buoyantStatic lift, powered up the tether.
Payload modules
- EO/IR ballStabilized day/night imaging turret.
Endurance / range tiers
- Standard — 15 days
- Extended — 30 days
Sensor / comms packages
- EO/IR imagingDay / night electro-optical.
- ███████ ██████ — redacted◫ Controlled
- Comms relay nodeLine-of-sight extension up the tether.
Autonomy modes
- CrewlessNo onboard crew on a standard sortie — Vector resolves its own airspace.
- SupervisedSingle-command human oversight from the ground.