Lockheed Martin is ready to propose designing an airship that could be equipped with an early warning radar for U.S. missile defense systems, Defense Week reported today (see GSN, Aug. 9).

The Missile Defense Agency, the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the Office of the Secretary of Defense held an “industry day” last week on requirements for an unmanned airship that could carry a payload of up to 4,000 pounds at an altitude of 70,000 feet for more than a month, according to Defense Week.  The airship is the subject of a proposed three-year Defense Department Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration, worth between $50 million and $100 million, Defense Week reported. 

A request for airship proposals is expected to be issued in mid-January, with the proposals due in early February and the contract awarded by mid-March, according to sources.  The MDA has planned three demonstrations of the airship — in August 2004, November 2004 and April 2005, Defense Week reported

The Lockheed Martin airship would be 482 feet long, 180 feet tall and 153 feet in diameter, Defense Week reported.  The airship is expected to be able to scan a 1,200-kilometer area, said Ronald Browning, director of business development for surveillance systems at Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems in Akron, Ohio.  The airship would contain about 5 million cubic feet of gas with no internal structure, Browning said.  It would also have four moveable propeller engines, but no rudders or fins.

At 70,000 feet, there exists an area of low wind — a good environment for airships, Browning said.

“It’s a very benign environment,” he said.  “You get up here through the jet stream and basically just park at that level” (Ann Roosevelt, Defense Week, Oct. 28).

For further information, see:

MDA Basics of Missile Defense

MDA Missile Defense System

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