Kelluu, a Finnish firm that builds and operates autonomous airships providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and comms links to navies is back at REPMUS — and rising fast.
Kelluu’s 12-metre hydrogen-filled and powered airships provide low-altitude persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), combining a 12-hour flight endurance and a sensor payload of up to 6kg.
Arctic-capable, they have been tested in conditions down to -30°C and their supported payloads include electro-optical and infrared cameras, hyperspectral scanners, LiDAR, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and communication relays.
They usually cruise at speeds of between 15mph and 30mph and can tolerate wind speeds of up to 15 m/s (about 34mph).
REPMUS 26 saw the company returning to the OPEX for a second year, this time with two airships rather than one, and integrating more systems from other industry partners.
Kelluu was part of the NATO DIANA innovation accelerator programme’s 2025 cohort, and at REPMUS 26 one of its collaborations included its airships acting as communications relay nodes for a DIANA 2026 cohort newcomer, Beechat, which specialises in cryptographic radio systems.
The last 12 months have been busy: Kelluu’s Generation 2 airship is currently in development, and is expected to be ready for market in 2027. At 12m long and 2m wide it will have the same dimensions as the current platform, but will offer three times the endurance of the original: a 36-hour flight endurance.
The firm has been working with no fewer than ten NATO nations over the past year, in which time employee numbers have grown from about 25 to around 80.
It has opened a new office in Ottawa, Canada, and it took part in the initial TFX-Arctic trials in Iceland in June and July. There, the airships provided ISR and were dynamically retasked to investigate vessels of interest via its PRIMUS AI algorithm currently in development.
Kelluu is also building a new factory and R&D facility in Joensuu in the east of Finland, just over 200 miles north-east of Helsinki. The production facility is due to be completed in summer 2027 and will triple the company’s manufacturing capacity, taking its output up to one hundred autonomous airships a year.
The new site has been designed on modular principles: instead of one large building that does everything, it will be made up of smaller units that can be combined on one site or spread around the country, even underground if needed.
Kelluu CEO Janne Hietala said: “The new factory takes development to a whole new level, in manufacturing, in building AI capability and in putting the latest camera and sensor technology to work in our airships. At the same time we are building a factory concept that can be replicated in other countries.”
About REPMUS 26
Hosted by the Portuguese Navy, this year marks the 16th iteration of REPMUS — Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping using Maritime Unmanned Systems.
The operational exercise (OPEX) based on the Troia peninsula south of Lisbon is dedicated to testing and integrating uncrewed maritime systems into the wider defence ecosphere.
This year’s serials have involved more than 1,500 people from 36 navies, in excess of 60 industry partners, 13 universities, five NATO organisations, more than 300 uncrewed maritime systems and at least 14 naval vessels. They started at the end of August and will conclude on Friday.
- You can read more about the airship company on the Kelluu website
