UAE’s Space42 tests AI-enabled HAPS for wildfire response in Spain

UAE-based Space42 has completed Europe’s first civilian-authorized High Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS) flight, highlighting the role of stratospheric platforms in wildfire monitoring and environmental surveillance.

The company’s subsidiary Mira Aerospace demonstrated the technology’s potential for wildfire response in Spain, according to a statement released Tuesday. 

The flight, conducted in mid-December using Mira Aerospace’s ApusNeo18 platform for Telespazio Ibérica, part of Italy’s Leonardo Group, was the first HAPS mission in Europe to receive full civilian operational approval.

Smart surveillance

The mission highlights the growing commercial readiness of HAPS technology and its ability to deliver AI-enabled, real-time intelligence for emergency and environmental operations.

Executed from the Fuerteventura Technology Park spaceport in Spain’s Canary Islands, the flight showcased how HAPS can safely operate in controlled airspace while providing persistent surveillance.

The ApusNeo18 aircraft, with an 18-meter wingspan, 12-meter length, and a weight of just over 45 kilograms, initially climbed to 2,000 feet. Future flights will progressively increase altitude to as high as 16,000 feet, with mission endurance eventually reaching up to 48 hours.

Mira Aerospace CEO Khaled Al Marzooqi said the milestone reflects growing international momentum behind Space42’s strategy to become a leading provider of premium geospatial intelligence. He noted that for wildfire response, HAPS offer a rare combination of persistence, agility, and precision, enabling authorities to track fast-moving fire fronts in near real time while reducing operational costs compared with conventional aircraft.

The mission forms part of Spain’s ISSEC program, a joint initiative between Telespazio Ibérica and Pegasus Aero Group aimed at strengthening national wildfire response capabilities. 

Fire intelligence

Equipped with high-resolution electro-optical and infrared sensors, HAPS platforms can transmit continuous imagery and data to decision-makers on the ground, supporting faster and more informed responses to increasingly destructive “sixth-generation” wildfires.

Telespazio Ibérica CEO Carlos Fernández de la Peña said securing civilian operational authorization after a lengthy regulatory process was a major achievement, demonstrating the company’s technological capacity to monitor, control, and combat large-scale wildfires that have intensified in recent years.

Over the coming weeks, ApusNeo18 will fly over Gran Canaria to collect data for wildfire prevention and management. The results will help assess the operational value of stratospheric platforms for civil protection missions and lay the groundwork for future commercial HAPS services across Europe, reinforcing the role of AI-driven aerial systems in climate resilience and emergency management.

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Nathaniel Alexander Abaño

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