lighter-than-air vehicles - Defense Innovation Marketplace

low-altitude surveillance. When completed, the LEMV will be the first DoD hybrid airship to beoperationally deployed.DARPA has conducted several development efforts in the last 10 years to advance airshiptechnology. Three of these efforts have been combined to form the Pelican (RAVB) programconducted by ASD(R&E) and NASA. The Pelican airship is a hybrid airship technologydemonstrator designed to test several technology achievements required to develop a larger-scalehybrid airship for airlift operations. DARPA is currently working on the ISIS program, which isproducing a sub-scale conventional airship as a technology demonstrator for an innovative highaltitudeISR airship that integrates the sensor payload into the structure of the airship.Aerostats are a more mature technology than airships. As such, several DoD efforts havedeployed aerostats to support multiple missions, including wide area surveillance for offensiveand defensive roles, force protection and cruise missile detection in ISR and border securitymissions. The Army is the most prolific user of aerostat systems, with a half dozen separate ongoingprograms. The Navy works with the Army on the REAP program and the Navy effort,PGSS, is transitioning to the Army to merge with the existing PTDS program under the newname PSS-T. The Air Force also operates the TARS program, which provides border security inthe United States.Figure 6: Air Vehicle Efforts by Organization10