Prototype of reconnaissance vehicle expected to be ready to fly early next year
A cruise missile-launched expendable airship, which flies month-long reconnaissance missions above 100,000ft (30,500m), is being developed by the US Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
A prototype lighter-than-air vehicle should be ready for initial flight tests late next year, Ronald Behler, general manager for precision engagement, told the Defense News ISR Integration 2004 conference on 15 November.
The prototype will be launched from the ground and fly several hundred feet above a stadium on the Johns Hopkins campus in Maryland. The design objective calls for a $100,000-a-copy high-altitude reconnaissance vehicle (HARV), equipped with a small 25-45kg (50-100lb) payload.
Ejected from a cruise missile at medium altitude, a second-stage cannister-sized booster propels it to 300,000ft, where the airship inflates, and descends to 100,000ft.
In Behler's concept, the air force would probably deploy several HARVs over an area of operations, such as Iraq. Each vehicle could be equipped with mission payloads, including signals intelligence and synthetic-aperture radar.
Johns Hopkins began working on the design a year ago, but the project has gained interest in recent months. In August, Gen John Jumper, USAir Force chief of staff, said the service arm needs a reconnaissance vehicle capable of operating for long periods above 90,000ft.
The Johns Hopkins lab is internally funding the initial flight tests. It is hoped that the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the US Air Force Research Laboratory would contribute follow-on funding to conduct more realistic tests.
In the long-term, Johns Hopkins wants to manufacture the vehicles using an industry consortium approach, as no US company has the infrastructure to rapidly scale-up an airship production line.
STEPHEN TRIMBLE / WASHINGTON DC
Source: Flight International
