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Aviation History
1993
1993 - 1981.PDF
UP... T o a generation whose concept of a lighter-than-air vehicle proba bly begins and ends with the First World War Zeppelin, the idea of using such platforms as high- technology surveillance communications tools in the mid-1990s might seem dis tinctly passe. That the concept is far from outmoded can be deduced from the extensive use of such vehicles, as exemplified by the UK Ministry of Defence's re cent purchase of a surveillance airship* for deployment in Northern Ireland and the continuing expansion of a chain of radar-equipped aerostats across the southern USA, which forms a major tool in the country's drug-interdiction campaign. Three manufacturers — Martin Mari etta International Service (formerly the General Electric Electronic Systems Divi sion), TCOM LP (formerly a subsidiary of Westinghouse) and Israel's Rafael — are active in the surveillance-aerostat field. Martin Marietta's involvement can be traced back to experimental work under- A TCOM 71m LASS: at least four are in service in the USA Lighter-than-air vehicles are being used extensively as high- technology surveillance communications tools. Martin Streetly looks at their advantages taken in the late 1960s. As General Electric, the company's first operational vehicle was the 1974-vintage US Air Force Seek Skyhook system. Four such aerostats, equipped with the GE S-band single channel AN/DPS-5 radar have been supplied, three of which are known to have been operated from pads at Cudjoe Key and Cape Canaveral in Florida during the early part of their lives. As applied to the Seek Skyhook, the DPS-5 weighs 455kg, has a 5RPM rotating-parabolic antenna and a detection range of 275km (150nm) from an altitude of 12,000ft (3,700m). Still operational, the Seek Skyhook is being upgraded in a USAF-managed pro gramme which will improve the aerostats and introduce Martin Marietta's light- known to have bei UP... weight L-88A surveillance radar on all four vehicles. Available in several variants, the full-capability L-88 is a solid-state, dual-channel D-band radar which can be used to track air and surface targets simultaneously to ranges of 370km. The L-88's dual-channel capability, according to the company, is "unique". Alongside the Seek Skyhook upgrade, Martin Marietta is also supplying a new aerostat/L-88 combination for use at Lajas in Puerto Rico. Other related GE/Martin Marietta aero stat activity includes five sea-going vehi cles equipped with X-band Telephonies AN/APS-128 radars and used by the US Army to monitor sea and air "choke points" in the Caribbean. Looking ahead, Martin Marietta says that it intends,to stay in the aerostat/aerostat-radar business and will maintain an aerostat-building capabil ity, together with production of the L-88 ...AND AWAY 40 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 11 -17 August, 1993
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