India’s Bharat Forge Limited has entered into a strategic partnership with French-Canadian heavy-lift airship developer Flying Whales to bring advanced 60-tonne airships to India. This move aims to create a new logistics platform for defence and strategic operations while strengthening the country’s domestic aerospace manufacturing base.
The two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to jointly develop and manufacture the airships in India, with a particular focus on defence and other strategic operational requirements. The partnership marks a decisive step toward building an indigenous airship ecosystem in India by localising production, design, and system integration for strategic defence applications aligned with the government’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India initiatives.
Recently, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met Flying Whales President Sébastien Bougon in Paris to advance plans for setting up a heavy-lift cargo airship manufacturing ecosystem in India. This initiative is designed to contribute to economic development in landlocked regions while reducing the environmental impact of cargo transport.
Designed to lift up to 60 tonnes of payload, these rigid hybrid airships offer unprecedented capabilities for border operations in rugged regions like Ladakh and the trans-Himalayan corridor
To provide financial and regulatory backing, the Indian government is driving local growth by leveraging its administrative framework through the Indian Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) at GIFT City, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. This offers streamlined financial pathways for aerospace leasing and local maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services. This regulatory framework for aircraft leasing and MRO services will directly benefit Flying Whales. The initiative builds on a strategic partnership with India’s BLP Group and a pact with Bharat Forge to manufacture the massive LCA60T airships for regional connectivity, logistics, and defence.
The LCA60T is a massive, 200-metre-long, helium-filled cargo airship designed to transport up to 60 tonnes of payload. It features vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability, hybrid-electric propulsion, and the ability to operate with minimal ground infrastructure in remote locations. Its unique business model focuses not only on manufacturing these airships but also on operating them as an airline-style service to deliver oversized cargo to remote and hard-to-reach locations without requiring conventional ground infrastructure, such as runways or heavy-duty roads.
How Flying Whales Will Be Built in India
Massive cargo airships will soon be built and deployed in India through an expanding industrial ecosystem aimed at overcoming the country’s most challenging terrain bottlenecks. By utilising next-generation, rigid hybrid airships, India is positioning itself to bypass traditional infrastructure constraints like roads and runways for heavy-lift logistics. The blueprint for manufacturing and deploying these massive airships across the country involves several key operations.
The manufacturing framework relies on key domestic partnerships to build a sustainable aerospace pipeline. The Final Assembly Line (FAL) will be established in Tamil Nadu in collaboration with the BLP Group. Serving as the Flying Whales’ third global industrial hub alongside its bases in France and Canada, this facility will create over 300 highly skilled aeronautics jobs.
Capable of hovering to drop equipment without needing cleared runways, these provide essential support for military logistics, rapid deployment, and border surveillance
How Flying Whales Will Be Used in India
This partnership aims to build indigenous capabilities for India’s defence needs. These airships offer new possibilities for military logistics and disaster response, while creating high-technology employment and export opportunities.
Some of the key applications for this aircraft include:
Industrial Uses: The primary aircraft being introduced is the LCA60T—a massive, 200-metre-long, helium-filled rigid airship capable of lifting up to 60 tonnes of cargo. Its design relies on a hybrid-electric propulsion system and VTOL capabilities. It operates without needing runways or heavy ground infrastructure because it can load and unload goods while hovering stationary in mid-air. Primary applications include heavy-lift logistics, such as transporting wind turbine blades, electrical transmission towers, and aerospace equipment directly to remote project sites.
These airships solve the “last-mile” problem for heavy infrastructure projects located in complex geographical terrains. By accommodating oversized cargo in a massive cargo bay, the aircraft can haul payloads directly to project sites, supporting initiatives like the Green Energy Corridor.
When deploying these airships, road constraints—such as overhead wire clearances, narrow bridges, and weight limits—are completely eliminated. To accelerate green energy adoption, the aircraft can move massive wind turbine blades directly to remote mountain ridges. For power grid expansion, it can deliver heavy electrical transformers straight to rural substation sites. Ultimately, these aircraft reduce project costs and eliminate the need for expensive multimodal transfers and road modifications.
High-Altitude Defence Logistics: The Indian military faces extreme challenges moving heavy payloads to forward operating bases in rugged terrains, such as Ladakh and the trans-Himalayan border regions. These airships will transport oversized military gear, manage rapid border deployments, and provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) support.
Beyond defence, the 200-metre-long airships solve the critical “last-mile” challenge by carrying massive cargo, such as wind turbine blades and transformers, directly to remote project sites
The two companies are focused on establishing the manufacture, integration, and production of these airships for defence applications in India, creating sovereign capabilities in a strategically important aerospace segment. This move builds on Bharat Forge’s proven aerospace capabilities and aligns perfectly with India’s long-term military modernisation push. In collaboration with the Transport Corporation of India (TCI), this partnership will deliver critical logistics for massive engineering works, such as the Trans-Himalayan tunnel constructions and the Brahmaputra Basin Investment projects.
Disaster Relief and Humanitarian Aid: In the event of floods or earthquakes that destroy local roads and bridges, the hovering airships can drop off tons of food, medical supplies, and shelter equipment directly to isolated populations without needing a clear landing strip. The airship can also be used to deliver bulky disaster relief supplies, medical aid, and military equipment to areas where traditional roads and bridges are non-existent or compromised.
When natural disasters destroy ground infrastructure, these aircraft serve as an immediate lifeline to isolated populations. They can deliver a massive volume (up to 60 tonnes) of emergency supplies in a single flight. Another advantage is hover loading and unloading, which allows cargo handling without touching the ground or requiring cleared landing zones. Standard shipping containers can also be modified for emergency response capabilities.
As instant field hospitals, these aircraft can deploy fully equipped, modular medical clinics directly into disaster zones. They can bypass ruined roads and reach flood-isolated communities when bridges and highways are washed away. Featuring high-capacity distribution capabilities, they outperform traditional helicopters in payload capacity by a factor of ten.
In times of crisis, these flying platforms double as instant air lifelines, capable of delivering tons of emergency supplies or fully equipped medical clinics into flood- or earthquake-stricken zones
Key Outcomes
Bharat Forge’s partnership with French aerospace pioneer Flying Whales represents a highly strategic entry into heavy-lift rigid airship systems. Operating without the need for conventional runway infrastructure, these airships present an innovative, low-emission solution for India’s rugged border terrains.
In addition, the project will build dedicated MRO hubs within India. As a strategic partnership, Indian heavy manufacturing expertise combines with European rigid airship design. Establishing a localised aerospace ecosystem ensures long-term operational sustainability and technology transfer in advanced materials, further developing localised supply chains for carbon-fibre structures and synthetic envelopes.
Indigenous manufacturing of these aircraft will create highly skilled engineering and manufacturing jobs in regional industrial hubs. On the regulatory front, partners will work with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to design new airworthiness and low-altitude flight rules. Manufacturing these aircraft will position India as the primary production and export hub for South Asian airship logistics.
However, there are certain key risks to watch, such as long gestation periods and high capital expenditure requirements for setting up an aerospace manufacturing ecosystem. Another crucial factor is securing the necessary regulatory and air safety approvals for operating massive rigid airships in sovereign airspace. Finally, potential delays in technology transfer or global supply chain hurdles for hybrid-electric parts may arise due to changing geopolitical conditions.
The author retired as a Senior Technical Officer at the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute, Bhavnagar (Gujarat), and currently contributes articles to research journals and magazines. The views expressed are personal and do not necessarily carry the views of Raksha Anirveda.
