WindBorne Wins Up to $49M Air Force Deal for Balloon Weather Data

The U.S. Air Force signed a non-competitive contract worth up to $49 million with WindBorne Systems, TechCrunch reported, buying atmospheric data from a fleet of about 700 weather balloons the Redwood City company flies around the globe.

Only $1.7 million has been ordered so far. The deal lets the service draw against the ceiling as it needs data; it can place orders for specific regions at specific times, and executives expect more orders to follow.

The sole-source award rests on a government finding that no competitor could do the job. Co-founder and CTO Andrey Sushko described it as "a determination by the government that for this capability of collecting global data, we were the only company able to provide it in the way that met their needs for these operations." The balloons have no engines; they navigate by adjusting altitude, bleeding air and dropping ballast sand.

Sushko said the contract is "largely a vehicle through which continued growth of the constellation can be supported," with research and development attached. WindBorne already works with the National Weather Service and the U.S. Navy; this is the largest contract it has signed.

The company's WeatherMesh 6 model is pitched as more accurate than the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. In August WindBorne became the first operator to send an unpowered flight system into the eye of a typhoon. "It's one of the first times that a deep-learning model was used for actual operational decisions," Sushko said.