20km above ground, always watching: How India’s new airships will snoop across the border

Maiden flight test of DRDO's stratospheric airship conducted in May 2025. (Image courtesy: DRDO)

In an effort to keep a persistent surveillance across the border the Ministry of Defence has launched a project to develop an indigenous stratospheric airship program,. The programme was cleared by the defence minister chaired Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) in February this year.

These lighter than air platforms will be designed to stay airborne at altitudes which are as high as 20 km or almost 66,000 feet for extended periods of time providing around the clock intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) stream from across the border. The high altitude platform will also provide as well as extend communications.The airship will have equipment to snoop on the enemy electronically as well as an electro optronic equipment payload that can look deep inside hostile territory and track movement using a day camera, night vision devices as well as thermal imaging.

70% of the Make-I project's research and development funding will be sourced from the government. As per the Defence Acquisition Procedure-2020, Make-I projects are government funded, Make-II projects are industry funded and Make-III projects are those that are foreign developed, but made domestically.The advantage of an air ship over other systems such as a balloon is that these systems can be maneuvered and deployed over or near an area of interest as per requirement.

The advantages these systems have over satellites are that they are cheaper to launch and operate than traditional satellites, they can be continuously on station unlike a satellite, which may not always be available or have revisit times that hamper persistent surveillance.

Besides India, United States, China, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, Russia and South Korea are working to deploy these platforms.The development comes at a time when the Indian armed forces are in the middle of a modernisation drive. The armed forces are seeking to improve the entire sensor to shooter chain, or the ability to first detect a target in a dynamic battle field, amidst the fog of war, cue and bring fire on to the target in the most effective way. The armed forces have been procuring advanced electro-optronics, drones at almost all levels and are procuring high end intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) aircraft as well as setting up a satellite constellation to keep a permanent pair of eyes on threats emanating from across the border.

The plan of the armed forces is to form multiple systems with overlapping systems so as to have a fail proof and redundant web of assets that complement each other.