lighter-than-air vehicles - Defense Innovation Marketplace

PURPOSEThe purpose of this document is to serve as a summary report on the current status and futureplans for all DoD-funded air vehicle programs. With numerous air vehicle programs currently indevelopment across the DoD, a consolidated knowledge will enable better oversight, moreeffective use of DoD resources, and cross-pollination of technologies across programs andservices. The purpose of this report is twofold: (i) to inform the senior official with oversightauthorities for airship-related programs, and (ii) to satisfy the Senate report mandate. This reportcovers all currently funded (or recently concluded) DoD aerostats, airships, and RAVB vehicles.Balloons with ISR or logistic capabilities are also briefly covered in Appendix A. Table 1provides an overview of the currently funded (or recently concluded) LTA programs within theDoD.MethodologyAn exhaustive review was completed on open source resources to identify points of contact forknown DoD programs that have funded aerostats, airships, RAVB vehicles and balloons withISR or logistic capabilities. Points of contact across the air vehicle development community andprogram representatives were interviewed to collect the required data sets and identify anyadditional programs that fall within the report’s scope. The data was analyzed, organized andused to develop this report.This report provides a brief history of LTA vehicle technology and defines a categorizationschema of the various air vehicle types. The programs are divided into two groups—aerostatsand airships—with an overview of each classification. Detailed profiles broken down bytechnical detail, history, and programmatics for the various DoD aerostats and airships are alsoincluded.3