AFRL awards $10.2 million contract to Lockheed Martin

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ROME, N.Y. (AFPN) --  The Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded a $10,251,024 contract in support of its "Integrated Sensor IS Structure," or ISIS program, to Lockheed Martin Corp., Maritime Systems and Sensors, of Akron, Ohio.

The two-year contract is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of Arlington, Va. ISIS envisions a stratospheric airship operating as a surveillance platform more than 70,000 feet above the Earth.

This is the second contract awarded to Lockheed Martin for portions of the ISIS research. Earlier, two contracts were awarded to divisions of Northrop Grumman Corp., and one was signed with Raytheon Systems Co. of El Segundo, Calif. The combined value of the five awards is in excess of $42.5 million.

The goal of the ISIS program is to develop a stratospheric, airship-based autonomous unmanned sensor with years of persistence in surveillance and tracking of air and ground targets. It will have the capability to track the most advanced cruise missiles at a distance in excess of 370 miles and dismounted enemy combatants on the ground nearly 200 miles away.

"Under this contract, Lockheed Martin will perform preliminary design and analysis, development, production and validation testing of an advanced airship hull material," said Jeffery Mack, program manager in the AFRL sensors directorate. "The effort also includes developing the process to adhere both solar panels and radar arrays to the materials. Thirty hull material samples will be delivered to other ISIS contractors.

"The vision for this stratospheric platform is an array of sensors to create a radar nearly as large as the airship itself," Mr. Mack said.

(Courtesy of Air Force Research Laboratory Public Affairs)