Hydrogen-Powered Autonomy

Building NATO’s endurance edge Hydrogen-Powered Autonomy

2026-09-07 From Filipe Martins and Anna Kobylinska/Maria Beyer-Fistrich 14 min Reading Time

Related Vendors

Between persistent aerial-intelligence airships and proposed near‑space hypersonic “hyperplanes”, Europe’s autonomous aviation projects span radically different concepts but share one challenge: reducing constraints on endurance. Hydrogen is emerging as a versatile, though operationally demanding, answer to the problem of time aloft.

Representatives from Finnish company Kelluu test their unmanned airship at REPMUS 2025. The drills included tests of technology developed through NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA).(Source: NATO) — Representatives from Finnish company Kelluu test their unmanned airship at REPMUS 2025. The drills included tests of technology developed through NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA).
(Source: NATO)

Airships over Finland’s eastern flank, hydrogen multirotors in Estonia, fuel cells under the Baltic and new US interest in modular UAS fuel-cell stacks illustrate activity at opposite ends of the flight envelope: persistent, low-and-slow loitering platforms on one side, and yet-to-be-proven high-speed hydrogen concepts on the other.

Please log in or register and read this article. To be able to read this article in full, you must be registered. Free registration gives you access to exclusive specialist information.

Create My Free Account

Already registered? Log in here