Will Indian Air Force buy an Indigenous High Altitude Pseudo Satellite?

The Indian Ministry of Defense (MoD) approved the procurement of a Fixed-Wing Based High Altitude Pseudo Satellite (FW-HAPS) for carrying out persistent Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance, telecommunication and remote sensing for the Indian Air Force.

The HAPS acquisition was included in several procurement approvals for the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force totaling about 52000 crore INR ($5.5 billion) for which acceptance of necessity was accorded on Friday.

Globally, not many aerospace majors have a tested and qualified HAPS which can be purchased off the shelf. Among the development programs is one by the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), India’s dedicated research institute for aerospace technologies and another by BAE Systems.

NAL has so far undertaken a test flight of a scaled down prototype of the platform which flew to an altitude of 7.5 km staying in the air for 10 hours. The full scale platform is expected to reach an altitude of 23 km and stay airborne for up to 90 days.

Recent reports say that NAL is planning a test flight of a full size HAPS which will measure 33 meters in wingspan, as wide as a Boeing 737. The HAPS will be entirely powered by solar energy via an array of solar cells mounted on its wings.

What is not known if the prototype carried any of the payload for surveillance and monitoring that is expected to be mounted on the production HAPS.

BAE Systems’ PHASA -35 HAPS

Among global aerospace majors, BAE Systems has a HAPS project called PHASA-35 which completed stratospheric flight trials in 2023 and 2024. Weighing just 150 Kg, the PHASA-35 is light enough to be can be operated as a pseudo-satellite, without the need for continual management or monitoring, BAE Systems says that the project continues to be developed for defense and commercial applications over the next few years.