Israel Aerospace Industries is pulling the cover off POINT@AIR, a compact radar carried on a tethered, balloon-like aerostat, at the AUSA 2026 exhibition in Washington this week. Built on IAI's ELM-2083 radar family, it uses AESA technology and combines electronic scanning with mechanical rotation to deliver 360-degree coverage. By floating high above the landscape, the radar can see past the hills and buildings that often hide low-flying threats such as drones and cruise missiles from ground-based radars, while also tracking ships and vehicles. IAI says the system can be moved quickly to wherever forces need it, needs no fixed infrastructure, and feeds its data into command-and-control systems.

The pitch is simple: small, cheap drones are changing warfare, and spotting them early is hard when mountains, valleys, and city skylines block the view. IAI says POINT@AIR is meant to supplement its long-range radars rather than replace them, filling gaps where low-altitude threats are a growing worry. For comparison, IAI rates its larger ELM-2083A aerostat radar for up to 30 days aloft, but the company has not published an endurance figure for the new system. IAI also hasn't disclosed POINT@AIR's detection range, operating altitude, price, or customers. That leaves a big question hanging for militaries watching the debut: how well will a small tethered platform hold up in a real conflict, where it could make a very visible target?