Surveillance Airships Readied in Arizona, Ohio
One concept drawing of a Lockheed Martin proposed High Altitude Airship.
By John Guzzon
Modern Times Magazine .com
June 21, 2011 — Over the past 60 years, the holy grail of surveillance has been acquiring “persistence” over a subject area, or in another words, to be able to see everything and anything move wherever and whenever it is needed.
Satellites are very expensive and unreliable since they cannot hover over an area. UAVs that look like airplanes can loiter over an area for a long period of time, but they, too, are expensive. Enter the High Altitude Airship, or HAA, UAVs that developers and supporters claim can bring about a secure U.S. border with Mexico as well as knowledge of each enemy asset on foreign battlefields through constant, rewindable surveillance.
Read what military leaders had to say about HAAs at High Altitude and Near Space Conference
First, though, the super-large airships — not blimps or aero-stats — have to prove they can actually loiter at altitudes of 60,000 feet or higher and that the surveillance systems can have the perfect mixture of ability and low weight while still being effective. Two test flights this summer will endeavor to answer both of those questions in the affirmative.
World Surveillance Group, Inc. will be up first as the company has announced it has reached a deal with the U.S. Army to test its Argus One craft from July 11 to July 22 at a proving ground facility in Yuma, Ariz. The craft completed design, envelope, stability, and propulsion systems testing at altitudes of a maximum of 500 feet in April. The upcoming flight tests will be at higher altitudes, include untethered flight testing and test the ‘heart’ of the system — the surveillance package.
The electronics packages integrated into the Argus One will be fully operational during the flight test period, allowing the company to evaluate and test alternative payloads and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance packages for various mission applications. The payload packages were supplied to World Intelligence Group by L-3 Communications and Global Telesat Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of World Surveillance Group, and consists of an L-3 Wescam Electro-Optical/Infrared package and Global Telesat Corp. satellite communications equipment that utilizes Globalstar Inc.'s Low Earth Orbit satellite constellation.
Read what military leaders had to say about HAAs at High Altitude and Near Space Conference
World Surveillance Group Inc. is the new name of the company that was known as Sanswire Corp. The name change came just after Sanswire purchased Global Telesat Corp. earlier this year. Sanswire had been instrumental in developing the Argus One craft over the past decade and ith the acquisition of Global Telestat Corp., they now have the technical expertise in surveillance packages.
"We are excited to finalize our test dates for the Argus One UAV at Yuma and look forward to testing and demonstrating its capabilities in restricted airspace. We are grateful to our partners for allowing us to integrate their advanced technological systems with our Argus One UAV to demonstrate the wide range of applications the Argus One may be used for when coupled with powerful ISR or communications payloads," said Glenn D. Estrella, president and CEO of WSGI said.
Not to be outdone, military contractor Lockheed Martin will be launching a one-third scale version of its HAA, known as HALE-D (High Altitude Long Endurance), this summer from the famed airdock in Akron, Ohio. Opened in 1929, the airdock is home to Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Sensors’ Lighter-than-Air programs.
Read what military leaders had to say about HAAs at High Altitude and Near Space Conference
During the flight test scheduled for later this summer, the HALE-D will be asked to perform sustained operations at above 60,000 feet while providing power to a “user-defined payload.” That “user defined payload” is most likely Raytheon’s Integrated Sensor Is Structure, or ISIS, system. The ISIS system is based on a new low-power density radar developed by Raytheon that is embedded into the airship. The power for the system is generated by solar arrays throughout the craft. The active electronically scanned array antenna will transmit on UHF and X-band from within the airship.
"The operational goal for ISIS is to look for airborne and ground-based targets and to communicate directly with the battlefield from a single antenna for up to 10 years," said Michael Wechsberg, director of radio frequency systems programs for Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems when it was announced that the company had received $400 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2009.
John Guzzon is editor of Modern Times Magazine.
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