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Stratospheric Intelligence Platform
Astrato Aerospace builds autonomous aircraft that fly at 20km altitude — above weather, below satellites — delivering persistent surveillance and communications for Australia and its allies.
The Gap
Governments across the Indo-Pacific need persistent, real-time intelligence over vast distances. Today, nothing delivers it. Satellites are too high. Drones are too low. And the stratosphere between them sits completely empty.
A satellite passes over any given location for just minutes at a time. With 90-minute revisit gaps, entire crises unfold invisibly. You cannot stare at a border zone from space.
Military UAVs max out at 15km. Weather grounds them. Endurance tops at 48 hours. They require active pilots around the clock and can't legally enter sovereign airspace unannounced.
When a cyclone hits, a border incursion begins, or a vessel goes dark in Australian waters, you need a response in hours — not the 18 months it takes to commission a new satellite.
The Solution
Our aircraft fly for 30+ days without a human pilot. AI-driven station-keeping holds position over any coordinate — day and night, through solar cycles — without ground intervention.
Next-generation perovskite-silicon solar panels provide all-day power. Onboard batteries sustain night operations. Zero fuel. Zero emissions. Indefinite patrol.
Modular payload bay carries EO/IR cameras, SAR radar, SIGINT antennas, or comms relays. One aircraft, any mission. Reconfigured on the ground in under an hour.
Intelligence stays onboard. The aircraft detects, classifies, and prioritises targets in real-time. Only actionable intelligence reaches the ground — encrypted and verified.
Illustration: Solar-electric HAPS vehicle in stratospheric cruise — representative of Astrato's target platform class
Applications
Three core markets, each with urgent unmet demand and government-backed budgets to pay for a solution.
Continuous surveillance over Northern Australia, the Torres Strait, and Indo-Pacific maritime corridors. No pilot. No flight manifest. Always watching.
One aircraft covers the area of an entire state. Crop health, water stress, livestock movement, and flood mapping — all from 20km up, updated continuously.
A stratospheric relay station that brings broadband to remote communities, disaster zones, and vessels at sea — without depending on foreign satellite infrastructure.
How It Works
The aircraft takes off from a standard runway. No special infrastructure. Reaches 20km altitude within hours under its own power.
Onboard AI holds the aircraft over a precise coordinate — automatically adjusting to stratospheric wind patterns, with no ground crew needed.
Sensors scan the area below. Edge AI processes imagery and signals onboard, extracting intelligence before transmitting anything to the ground.
Encrypted, actionable intelligence reaches operators in real-time. Decisions are made in minutes, not hours. The aircraft keeps flying.
The Opportunity
Australia's 2023 Defence Strategic Review mandated a historic investment in autonomous capabilities. The ADF has the budget. Astrato has the technology. There is no other Australian stratospheric ISR company.
2030 Market by Segment
Source: Frost & Sullivan, MarketsandMarkets, internal analysis (2025)
Why Now
Australia's 2023 Defence Strategic Review mandated a $330B+ ten-year investment. AUKUS Pillar 2 commits billions specifically to advanced autonomous and AI capabilities. The ADF has budget and urgency — but no stratospheric ISR solution exists today.
Advances in onboard edge AI and computer vision between 2023–2025 make fully autonomous stratospheric station-keeping technically feasible for the first time — without prohibitive hardware costs or pilot oversight.
Perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells crossed 30% efficiency commercially in 2024. This single advance extends HAPS endurance from days to 30+ days continuously — making the economics viable for the first time in history.
ICAO's HAPS working group, CASA's emerging stratospheric framework, and ACMA's spectrum coordination are all in active drafting. The first Australian company to engage writes the rules. That window closes in 12–18 months.
The Team
We have the three credentials that can't be faked: government relationships, aerospace engineering depth, and autonomous systems expertise.
Investment Opportunity
Pre-Seed Round — SAFE — $15M Cap — 20% Discount