Car-sized spy airship powered by hydrogen to fly in NATO’s largest drone drill
A Finnish technology company, Kelluu, uses an old idea to change modern surveillance. Located in Joensuu, Kelluu has created a small, hydrogen-powered, self-flying airship.
This airship is designed for long-lasting use, is environmentally friendly, and has advanced sensors. It is now gaining interest from defense organizations, including NATO.
The airship, about the size of a car at roughly 12 meters (40 feet) long, departs from the image of traditional blimps. Powered by hydrogen that provides both lift and fuel, the craft can remain aloft for more than 12 hours per mission, far outlasting conventional drones or helicopters.
Company officials say emissions are reduced by 99.5 percent compared with standard aerial platforms, making it one of the cleanest persistent surveillance solutions available.
Silent and durable by design
Built with a patented hydrogen-safe structure, the airship is designed to fly quietly and safely in various conditions, including sub-zero Arctic environments.
Its compact frame makes it more deployable than large blimps, while its low-noise operation offers civilian and defense surveillance advantages.
Kelluu operates Northern Europe’s only airship factory in Joensuu, where it produces the hydrogen-powered fleet. The company maintains bases in Finland and Sweden, with plans for further international expansion.
Despite its modest size, the platform can carry payloads of up to 6 kilograms (13 pounds), enabling multi-sensor missions.
Configurations can include LiDAR, spectral cameras, and thermal imagers. One of its standard options is the AgEagle RedEdge-P multispectral camera, which captures high-resolution RGB and multispectral imagery with pixel-aligned outputs for mapping and monitoring.
With these tools, Kelluu airships can create digital twins of areas up to 300 kilometers (186 miles) in diameter from a single station.
Finnish mining company Terrafame has used the system to generate 3D digital models of a 60-square-kilometer industrial site, helping monitor slope stability and optimize operations.
The company highlights forestry health monitoring, infrastructure inspections, agricultural mapping, and security patrols as prime civilian uses.
In forestry, the sensors can detect bark beetle infestations and provide precision crop mapping in agriculture.
Kelluu describes its platform as a data-as-a-service system, with airships operating autonomously while artificial intelligence processes the information they collect.
Expanding into defense
Though initially focused on civilian applications, Kelluu’s autonomous airship has drawn increasing interest from defense organizations.
The platform is set to participate in NATO’s Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping with Maritime Unmanned Systems (REPMUS 25) exercise in Portugal, one of the alliance’s largest trials of unmanned technologies.
In that setting, Kelluu will demonstrate how its endurance and GNSS-denied navigation capabilities could support intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions in contested zones.
Unlike satellites, which are limited by weather, or drones, which face endurance constraints, the hydrogen airship can persistently monitor below the clouds, providing a continuous flow of intelligence.
Kelluu’s work reflects a growing trend in Europe: small technology firms developing platforms that serve commercial and defense needs.
The company was recently selected for NATO’s DIANA innovation accelerator, a program that supports dual-use technologies.
It also participated in Atlantic Trident 25, a multinational exercise involving US, British, French, and Finnish forces, the first time a hydrogen-powered autonomous airship took part in such a drill.
The platform’s advantages come from its endurance, silence, and flexibility blend.
Bridging the gap between drones and satellites offers NATO and civilian agencies a persistent, low-emission surveillance solution.
Hydrogen power allows Kelluu’s airship to fly longer, quieter, and cleaner than most conventional aerial platforms. It may not replace existing systems, but it provides a valuable complement in areas where endurance and resilience are critical.
Kelluu’s hydrogen airship is becoming part of a new group of unmanned vehicles. It is used for tasks like industrial mapping and international defense exercises. Lighter-than-air flight is making a comeback with new technology.
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Car-sized spy airship powered by hydrogen to fly in NATO’s largest drone drill, source
