After the rise of drones, the airship could find a new use within the armed forces. In Finland, a company is developing devices for civil and military use, tested a few kilometers from Russia, a source of tension.
« But what is this? ? “. On the social network Reddit, Finns are wondering and posting photos of a strange UFO seen on a cold morning on November 19. A chrome airship, 11 meters long, floating silently about a hundred meters from the ground, above the daily commute to work, the image is striking.
Kelluu, the company behind this theft, spoke in the local press: “ the airship was shown to visitors at the Slush show – an event in the tech sector – but it did not collect environmental data ».
In Helsinki, the country’s capital, city dwellers may be surprised, but residents of the more remote region of North Karelia are more accustomed to seeing these machines crossing the sky.
« We have repeatedly flown over these colder areas to test our aircraft in harsher conditions. » explains Janne Hietala, the founder and boss of Kelluu. On paper, this balloon functions as a sentinel for various civilian missions: data collection for urban planning, environmental protection, forest management, intelligence assistance for rescue. But beneath its peaceful appearance, it also proves to be a valuable ally for defense operations, ready to respond to hybrid threats.
« Our use cases cover both purely civil and economic applications, but also public security issues, such as jamming, sabotage or border management. » describes Janne Hietala to us. And with a threatening Russia to the east, this border has become a point of tension, where uncertainty permanently looms, requiring constant surveillance.
The airship was also tested by the Nordic defense giants: the Swedish Saab and the Finnish Patria. Has the balloon ever watched over this region as part of a military mission? The founder prefers not to comment on this subject.
New models tested to collect data from the sky
The airship is one of those devices that has experienced a new military life since the war between Russia and Ukraine. “ The evolution of the digital defense ecosystem enables very agile testing, demonstrations and deployment of new innovative capabilities, whether civil, dual-use, or purely military technologies. », Explains Janne Hietala, also citing the transformation in the use of drones.
The balloons were talked about again during a Chinese failure in the United States: Beijing had sent spy devices to the American continent in 2023 which drifted towards deep regions of the country. This method was later replicated by the Ukrainian army.
Kelluu’s device is more agile. Equipped with a propeller, inflated with hydrogen, it can move on an ordered trajectory or autonomously over a defined area. The machine has an impressive battery life of 12 hours. The complex air rules limit the flight altitude to around one hundred meters. In an extreme scenario, the airship could rise up to 1 km in height.
According to its founder, the device is resistant to GPS jamming. In Ukraine, Russian or Ukrainian drones regularly fail in their missions, connections being disrupted by the electronic battle.
Is there a risk that the wind will cause Kelluu’s plane to drift across the dangerous border? “ No, the airship is designed to cope with harsh conditions in northern Finland. And we are not going to allow such intrusions into foreign territory, which could lead to serious diplomatic repercussions » tells us the reassuring entrepreneur.
Flying machines deployed at the border by the Russian army
However, a balloon of this size remains visible in the sky. And if the inhabitants of Helsinki were able to observe a first promotional flight for the Slush trade show, on the Russian side, we also released the balloons.
Last May, Russian public television channel Rossiya 1 broadcast images of airships monitoring its border with Finland. The balloon, with a rather basic design, held by a simple thread, gives the impression of being above all a symbol, in a period when Moscow is multiplying this type of demonstration.
Another Finnish source indicates that this is mainly a way of showing that Russia would be able to respond to developments in its border neighbors. The same process was replicated in Estonia.
According to Russian media, the purpose of this device is to prevent “ illegal immigration trying to enter Finland from Russia “. Another message too, this time aimed at the Russian population.
