Program Summary
Tracking and engaging numerous key targets in the sky and on the ground over vast geographic areas is critical for deployed warfighters. Today this requires multiple manned and unmanned airborne systems and ground support personnel and facilities overseas in theater.
To address this challenge, the joint DARPA/Air Force Integrated Sensor is Structure (ISIS) program is developing a sensor of unprecedented proportions to be fully integrated into a stratospheric airship. ISIS is designed to provide persistent wide-area surveillance, tracking, and engagement for hundreds of time-critical air and ground targets in deployed overseas urban and rural environments, without requiring in-theater support facilities or personnel. ISIS seeks radical sensor improvements by melding the next generation technologies for enormous lightweight antenna apertures and high-energy density components into a highly integrated, lightweight, multi-purpose airship structure, completely erasing the distinction between payload and platform.
The ISIS concept includes 99% on-station, 24/7/365 availability for simultaneous Airborne Moving Target Indicator (AMTI) (600 kilometers) and Ground-Based Moving Target Indicator (GMTI) (300 kilometers) operation; ten years of autonomous, unmanned flight; plus U.S.-based operation.
The current program focus is radar risk reduction.