Airborne for more than 90 minutes, the Army said the successful first flight of its Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) was conducted at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.
The Northrop Grumman [NOC] LEMV is an optionally manned or unmanned air vehicle, which was manned during this first flight conducted by Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command (SMDC/ARSTRAT).
The command develops and tests systems for the Army and, when they are ready, turns them over to operators.
The primary objective of the first flight was to have a safe launch and recovery with a secondary objective of verifying the flight control system operation. Additional first flight objectives included airworthiness testing and demonstration, and system level performance verification. All objectives were met during the first flight.
Additional manned flights will continue after a planned and very detailed inspection of the vehicle.
In 2010, Northrop Grumman was selected by SMDC/ARSTRAT under a $517 million agreement to develop a state-of-the-art hybrid airship to provide persistent time-on-station for additional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for theater commanders–something the service has long sought.
The five-year agreement provides for the design, development and testing of a long-duration hybrid airship system within an 18-month time period, and then the transport of the asset (Defense Daily, June 16, 2010). The Army wants to build three airships with 21-day persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability (Defense Daily Feb. 3 2011).
Prime Contractor Northrop Grumman is working with international partner Hybrid Air Vehicle (HAV) of the United Kingdom as a major subcontractor.