The DRDO HAPS flight trial has taken India's indigenous stratospheric airship to an altitude of 21 km above mean sea level, the Defence Research and Development Organisation said on Tuesday. The High Altitude Platform System then held at 20 km for more than 30 minutes before it was commanded to descend.

The system was recovered and its flight performance data analysed, according to the Ministry of Defence.

HAPS is a lighter-than-air, long endurance stratospheric aerial surveillance platform being designed and developed by the Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE), Agra. It offers a different route to persistent watch from DRDO's aircraft-based programmes, the Netra airborne early warning and control system and the six-aircraft AEW&C Mk II programme built on the A321.

DRDO HAPS flight trial holds 20 km for over 30 minutes

Real-time video and all other vehicle parameters reached the Ground Control Station throughout the flight, showing the intended flight performance.

The airship carried instrumentation and control electronics packages on the experimental flight. An inertial measurement unit, a Global Positioning System receiver, onboard cameras and an altitude control mechanism were among them, besides other sub-systems.



IAF, CEMILAC, DGCA and AAI coordinated the trial

The flight was conducted in coordination with the Indian Air Force, the Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC), the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and other civil authorities. A platform climbing to 21 km passes through airspace used by both military and civil traffic, on the way up and again on descent, which is why civil regulators work with the military airworthiness agency on a trial of this kind.

Defence Minister calls trial a milestone for Aatmanirbhar Bharat

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh complimented DRDO, the IAF, defence PSUs and industry on the trial. He said it was an important milestone in India's Aatmanirbhar Bharat journey towards realising a long endurance stratospheric airship.

Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, who is also Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO, congratulated the teams associated with the trial of the high-altitude airship platform.

The trial follows other indigenous aerospace work from DRDO laboratories this year, including the July delivery of the first 350 kg thrust class Expendable Turbo Jet Engine designed by the Gas Turbine Research Establishment.

Higher than the 2025 Sheopur maiden flight

ADRDE flew its first stratospheric airship platform from the Sheopur trial site in Madhya Pradesh on 3 May 2025. That prototype carried an instrumental payload to around 17 km during a flight of about 62 minutes, the ministry said in its release at the time, and was used to evaluate envelope pressure control and emergency deflation systems before the trial team recovered it for study.

The DRDO HAPS flight trial went around 4 km higher than that prototype and added a sustained hold at 20 km.

ADRDE takes its lighter-than-air work into the stratosphere

The Agra establishment is best known for parachutes. Its work covers aerodynamic decelerators, aerial delivery platforms of up to 16 tonnes, aircraft arrester barrier systems and the Controlled Aerial Delivery System, with lighter-than-air systems, aerostats and airship technologies part of its charter.