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AFRL awards $8 million ISIS contract to Raytheon

  • Published
  • By Air Force Research Laboratory Public Affairs
  • Air Force Research Laboratory Public Affairs
ROME, N.Y. --  The Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded a $7,996,471 contract to Raytheon Systems Co. of El Segundo, Calif.,

The two-year contract is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of Arlington, Va., in support of its "Integrated Sensor Is Structure (ISIS)" program. ISIS envisions a stratospheric airship operating as a surveillance platform more than 70,000 feet above the Earth.

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.

Achieving this goal will require the development of technologies that enable extremely large, lightweight phased-array radar antennas to be integrated into an airship platform. Major technical challenges are the development of ultra-lightweight antennas, antenna calibration technologies, power systems, station keeping approaches, and airships that support extremely large antennas.

"The Raytheon research will parallel that of Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and System Section, which was earlier awarded an $8,667,389 contract to develop a lightweight, low-power density Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) technology for the ISIS," said Jeffery L. Mack, program manager in the AFRL Sensors Directorate. "The two firms will be pursuing different approaches for developing technology that will be dual band (UHF and X-Band) and bonded to the flexible hull material of the airship."

"We are investigating four of the critical ISIS technologies here at Rome," said Mr. Mack, citing active electronically scanned arrays, lightweight/low power transmit/receive (TR) modules, advanced hull material for airships, and prime power for near space environments. "The vision for this stratospheric platform is an array of sensors to create a radar nearly as large as the airship itself."