DARPA awards Lockheed $399.9 million for blimp
Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor, receives nearly $400 million from the Pentagon to develop a blimp-carrying radar; the radar would be about 6,000 square meters (7,176 square yards) in size
DARPA has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp., the world’s largest defense contractor, a $399.9 million order to develop an airborne radar blimp. Lockheed and partner Raytheon Co. were awarded the contract for the Integrated Sensor Is Structure program, DARPA said in a separate news release. The companies will develop the scale model of a radar that would be about 6,000 square meters (7,176 square yards) in size and embedded in a blimp six miles above the earth, the statement said.
The ISIS radar could track small missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles as far as 600 kilometers (373 miles) away, the statement said. Lockheed beat Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp. for the contract, Jan Walker, a spokeswoman for the research agency, said in an interview.
Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed and Waltham, Massachusetts-based Raytheon received $100 million initially and will get the remainder in phases to finish the project by March 2013, Walker said.
