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DRDO flies stratospheric High-Altitude Platform to 21 km

By CAShorts DeskPublished Source: PIB (Ministry of Defence), 6 October 2026; Akashvani News; PIB release of 3 May 2025 for the earlier trial

DRDO flies stratospheric High-Altitude Platform to 21 km
Illustration (AI-generated)

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has flight-tested an indigenously developed High-Altitude Platform, the Ministry of Defence announced on 6 October 2026. The flight climbed to 21 km above mean sea level, held 20 km for more than 30 minutes, descended on command and was recovered. The Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment, Agra, is developing the lighter-than-air platform.

Syllabus: Prelims · Science & Technology; GS3 · Indian Achievements in S&T; GS3 · IT, Space, Biotech & IPR

Why it matters

A soldier at a border post or a coast guard officer needs a steady view of the same stretch of land or sea for days. A satellite in low orbit passes overhead and moves on; an aircraft or drone must land to refuel. A platform floating in the stratosphere can stay over one place, watch a wide area from 20 km up and send live video to the ground, as this trial did. It can also be brought down, repaired and flown again, which a satellite cannot. The trial lasted minutes, not days, so the long-endurance airship itself is still to come. The larger issue is building such surveillance technology within India.

Prelims pointers

  • Stratosphere: the layer above the troposphere, reaching up to about 50 km; it holds the ozone layer, and its temperature rises with height.
  • Tropopause: the boundary between troposphere and stratosphere, at about 8 km over the poles and about 18 km over the equator.
  • High-altitude platform station: the International Telecommunication Union defines it as a station on an object at 20 to 50 km, at a fixed point relative to the Earth.
  • Lighter-than-air craft: lifted by buoyancy of a gas such as helium or hydrogen. An airship is powered and steerable; a tethered aerostat is held by a cable.
  • Orbits for comparison: low Earth orbit lies up to about 2,000 km; geostationary orbit is at about 35,786 km above the equator.
  • DRDO: the research and development wing of the Ministry of Defence, formed in 1958, under the Department of Defence Research and Development.
  • CEMILAC: the DRDO body that certifies the airworthiness of military aircraft. DGCA regulates civil aviation under the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
  • Airports Authority of India: a statutory body under the Airports Authority of India Act, 1994; it manages airports and air traffic services.

Practise a UPSC-style question

With reference to the High-Altitude Platform flight-tested by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), consider the following statements:

1. It is a lighter-than-air system meant to serve as a long-endurance stratospheric aerial surveillance platform.

2. It is being designed and developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment, Bengaluru.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. (a) 1 only
  2. (b) 2 only
  3. (c) Both 1 and 2
  4. (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Show the answer

Answer: (a) 1 only

1 is correct: the Ministry of Defence describes it as a lighter-than-air system meant to be a long-endurance stratospheric aerial surveillance platform. 2 is incorrect: it is being designed and developed by the Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE), Agra, not the Aeronautical Development Establishment, Bengaluru.

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