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Humans have been flying in hot air balloons and dirigibles far longer than there have been airplanes and space shuttles. So it's not surprising that the US military is looking at airships (such as stratospheric floaters) as the perfect surveillance platforms. After all, airships seem to be becoming more popular these days.
Several companies have started work on a prototype airship that will hover in the stratosphere. It's basically a blimp with very large antennas and dishes. This autonomous unmanned sensor platform will track air and ground targets for the miliarty. The goal is for it to track even the most advanced cruise missiles and enemy soldiers from hundreds of miles away. The sensor structure is called "Integrated Sensor is Structure" (funny name, right?) or "ISIS" for short.
ISIS, however, is only in the design stage. The rest depends on the 2007 US defense budget, but there are already companies awarded with contracts to start work on various aspects of ISIS. One is working on the airship's platform: Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors of Akron, Ohio. There's also Northrop Grumman Space Technology (to make components for the radar sensor) and Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems (making the antenna). If funding is approved, ISIS will have one of the biggest radar sensors ever made (if not the biggest).
Meanwhile, the Missile Defense Agency is developing the High Altitude Airship or HAA (where do they get these names?). Yes, the High Altitude Airship is for high altitudes: near-space, one of the planet's final frontiers.
The two projects have a kind of synergy. The HAA project is basically just to show that a reliable airship can be built, while the ISIS focuses more on actually getting the sensors done. The US Congress, however, would rather spend money on other missile defense projects.
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