This study proposes an energy-efficient framework for non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) integrating a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-mounted reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), and a terrestrial user. The framework jointly optimizes the UAV’s 3D trajectory, satellite beamforming vectors, and RIS reflection coefficients to maximize energy efficiency (EE), accounting for UAV propulsion energy consumption and Quality of Service (QoS) constraints. The resulting non-convex fractional problem is solved using a low-complexity iterative algorithm combining successive convex approximation (SCA) and second-order cone programming (SOCP). Simulation results reveal up to 35% EE improvement over baseline schemes, highlighting the framework’s scalability and practicality for sustainable NTN systems.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have garnered considerable research interest in the fields of 5G and 6G wireless communication due to their remarkable flexibility and cost-effectiveness. However, the inherent openness of wireless communication environments renders these technologies vulnerable to eavesdropping. This paper presents a penalty-based successive convex approximation algorithm and a minorize–maximization algorithm to optimize the transmission beamforming vector, RIS beamforming vector, and UAV–RIS trajectory. The objective of this study was to enhance the physical layer security performance of wireless communication systems using UAVs and RISs. Our simulation results demonstrate that the proposed technique achieves a higher security transmission rate compared to existing techniques.