By A Correspondent

New Delhi: India’s air force will soon strengthen its capabilities for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance operations. The vendors have been asked to respond before April 30, 2026.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) recently invited proposals from domestic vendors to help build the airborne enemy monitoring system. The IAF intended to buy at least 10 such airships.

The selected vendor would design, develop, and manufacture the system, called the Medium Altitude Heavy-Lift Airship, according to media reports.

The airship thus built should be able to operate at altitudes of 10,000 feet from sea level or up to 30,000 feet above mean sea level. The system should come with a payload of at least 2,000 kg and up to 5,000 kg.

The system, with a maximum 100 knots true air speed, should have a minimum of ten days’ endurance and a desired endurance of 30 days.

The airship should operate under the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), the indigenous Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), or NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation), and denied environments, according to the IAF requirements.

The airship, in the future, should be a launch platform for projectiles and drones, acting as a force multiplier for the IAF, thus boosting India’s border monitoring capabilities.

The system should come with a mechanism to alert the Indian forces of enemy incursions and intrusions, both on the ground and in the air, along the long, sensitive borders with both China and Pakistan.

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 the capability to operate special payloads as well as act as a launch platform for projectiles or drones,” according to IAF officials with knowledge of the matter.

It should have “either line-of-sight communication of at least 250 km or the ability to operate via satellite links.”

Hydrogen is preferred to power the system as it is lighter-than-air, abundantly available, cheap, and non-toxic, the officials said.

The system must be robust enough and capable of autonomous vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) from an uneven surface,  according to the IAF’s requirement.

The airship development under the Make-I (government-funded) would result in procurement from the successful development partner under the Buy Indian-Indigenously Designed, Developed, and Manufactured category of the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020, if it met the minimum 50% indigenous content norm.

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