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Artist concept of what the Sentinel 5000 will look like with a Harrier alongside to give a relative idea of scale. The AEWradar can be clearly seen within the balloon atop the gondola. Later versions of the Sentinel would incorporate advanced flat panel phased array radars of less mechanical complexity, greater range and improved reliability.
Airship Industries Win Landmark US Navy Contract
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Airship Industries Win Major Us Navy Order
Those members of the international business community who doubted Alan Bond’s wisdom in his buying the then-ailing UK-based Airship Industries in 1985 must now be eating their words.
To many within the international defence environment, and particularly those of the Senior Service, the long-term concept of the modern airship had indeed a lot to offer. Consequently, it was no accident that one such potential operator just also happened to be the world’s largest navy. Airship Industries Skyship 500 and 600 had been working closely with the US Navy since 1983 and so when in August 1986 the USN issued its Request for Proposals (RFP) for what was to be called the Naval Air Ship Programme (NASP), Alan Bond’s latest adventure suddenly began to look better by the day.
The eventual $US170m order by the USN for a single Operational Deployment Model (ODM), signed on June 5 this year, calls for the development, construction and operational evaluation of a very large airship designated Sentinel 5000. The principle objective of NASP is to develop a long-endurance airship that would offer AEW and surveillance coverage for US forces at sea. Even a Carrier Battle Group does at times have a limited AEW capability while many convoys and smaller surface action groups in times of hostilities would not even have the benefit of a CBG as their primary escort.
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