REPMUS 2026: Kelluu planning Gen 2 airship, new factory in Finland

One of Kelluu's airships being launched at Exercise ‘REPMUS 2026'. (Janes/Neil Dee)

Finnish company Kelluu have announced an upgraded second generation (Gen 2) of their unmanned airship, and plans for scaled production of the type at NATO Exercise ‘REPMUS 26' (Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping with Maritime Unmanned Systems) in Tróia, Portugal.

The Gen 2 variant of the airship will triple flight time to 36 hours compared to the previous version, Emma Burton, OPEX lead at Kelluu told Janes during a media briefing at REPMUS on 21 September 2026. The new airship will be ready in 2026 and operational in 2027, Burton said. Gen 2 retains the same dimensions as the first generation, but will be more easily transportable, she added. Kelluu's airship is of 12 m length and uses hydrogen for lift, and as fuel for propulsion. Burton also said that the airship is Arctic-ready, having been tested at -36 ^o Celsius. The airship's cold weather tolerance will also be increased with Gen 2.

Burton said that the company will also build a new factory in Finland to produce the type with plans for production of fleets of airships. The new factory can be replicated in other allied nations, Burton said.

Kelluu have brought two airships to REPMUS 26 where the type is performing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), and data communications relay tasks. The airships have a Trillium sensor and IMSAR synthetic aperture radar (SAR) as payloads. Countermeasures can also be integrated. Kelluu participated in REPMUS 25 as friendly ‘blue forces', however this year the airships have deployed as adversary ‘red forces' operating under commander task unit (CTU) Valhalla, led by the Nordic countries participating at the exercise.