Lockheed Martin’s HALE-D Airship
Lockheed Martin’s latest airship concept, the HALE-D, is one of their most ambitious yet. The High Altitude Long Endurance Demonstrator borrows more from bird designs than traditional aircraft plans. The drone blimp is completely solar powered and can operate up to 60,000 feet. By cruising along jet streams and thermals while using its engines mostly to maintain position, the HALE-D is designed to stay airborne for months. Theoretically, even for years. Once on station, the HALE-D could scan a radius of 600 miles with even more powerful sensors than surveillance satellites could carry. This relatively cheap alternative to satellites isn’t just limited to the spying roll. Many programs are active to convert the blimp into a weaponized drone “mothership.” Such a system could hover for vast periods of time over a conflict zone, collecting detailed intelligence the whole time, and then strike targets with unparalleled precision and accuracy.