IAF plans to deploy heavy-lift airship at 30,000 ft for border surveillance

NEW DELHI: Aiming to boost the country’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has started work on a plan to build an unmanned airship for carrying out long-endurance monitoring missions.

The IAF has invited bids from domestic defence companies to design, develop and manufacture a ‘Medium Altitude Heavy Lift Airship’ that can operate at an altitude of “10,000 feet from sea level (up to 30,000 ft above mean sea level) and can carry payload at least 2,000 kg (up to 5,000 kg desirable)”.

Such an airship should be capable of operating in Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, NAVIC (desi navigation system) and also under GNSS-denied environment. In the future, such an airship can be a launch platform for projectiles and drones.

The induction of such a platform will be a force-multiplier for the IAF as it will boost monitoring of India’s sensitive and long borders, and alert forces against incursions and drone threats.

The platform “should be a multi-utility airship, preferably operating on hydrogen and will be used towards carrying out persistent ISR, communication akin to airborne radars like AWACS and AEW&C, and having capability to operate special payloads as well as act as a launch platform for projectiles or drones”, the proposal stated, adding such an airship should have “either line-of-sight communication of at least 250 km or the ability to operate via satellite links”. Hydrogen is preferred as it is lighter than air, cheap and non-toxic gas, abundantly available. The bid proposed an initial minimum order of 10 such platforms.

The system must be robust enough and capable of autonomous vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) from an uneven surface. The platform’s development will result in acquisition from a successful development agency through the Buy Indian-IDDM category with a minimum 50% indigenous content, the proposal said.