On May 3, 2025, the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) successfully completed the Stratospheric Airship Platform’s first flight trials from the Sheopur Trial location in Madhya Pradesh. The airship, which was created by the Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment in Agra, was launched with an instrumental payload at a height of about 17 kilometers.
In order to create high-fidelity simulation models for upcoming high-altitude airship flights, data from onboard sensors was obtained. To assess their effectiveness, emergency deflation and envelope pressure control systems were put into flight. The system was recovered by the trial team for additional analysis. The flight lasted roughly sixty-two minutes in total.
Rajnath Singh, the minister of defense, commended DRDO on the system’s successful first flight test. According to him, this technology will make India one of the few nations in the world with such in-house capabilities, enhancing its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities as well as earth observation.
Dr. Samir V. Kamat, Chairman of the DRDO and Secretary of the Department of Defense R&D, praised the DRDO team that worked on the system’s design, development, and testing. According to him, the prototype flight marks a significant advancement in the development of lighter-than-air high-altitude platform systems capable of sustained flying at stratospheric altitudes.
