Kelluu (Finland) – Autonomous Long-Endurance Airships for Persistent Monitoring

Introduction

In the far reaches of eastern Finland, a small company is quietly reinventing one of aviation’s oldest ideas for the needs of the future. Kelluu Oy, based in Joensuu, has developed a hydrogen-powered autonomous airship that marries century-old lighter-than-air flight with cutting-edge sensors and artificial intelligence. At first glance, Kelluu’s 12-meter blimps evoke the early days of aviation, but their mission is thoroughly modern: providing continuous, low-cost aerial surveillance and data for a range of civilian and defense applications. These silent sentinels can float above forests, critical infrastructure, or coastal waters for hours on end, beaming back high-resolution imagery and digital twins of the terrain below. As Europe seeks greater technological autonomy and new ways to protect its territories, Kelluu’s innovation has begun turning heads. NATO exercises and European industry trials have already featured these unmanned airships, hinting at their potential to fill crucial gaps in surveillance coverage. With climate-friendly hydrogen fuel and a fully European pedigree, Kelluu is positioning its novel airships as a strategic asset that could help Europe reduce reliance on foreign drones and bolster multi-domain situational awareness. It’s an audacious comeback story for the humble airship – one that is just starting to take off.