Blue Bear in successful unmanned hybrid airship bid

Bedfordshire firm Blue Bear is part of a Northrop Grumman/Hybrid Air Vehicles team which has been awarded an unprecedented contract to develop the Long Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) by the US Department of Defense (DoD).

Blue Bear will be providing: vehicle management and flight control algorithms; sub-scale demonstrator flight trials to de-risk full scale vehicle development; simulation and modelling; and support for vehicle management system integration.

The LEMV will be a hybrid airship (an airship which also develops lift in forward flight), typically flying 3-week intelligence missions at 20,000 ft. It will carry advanced sensors and systems to provide both a very high endurance “eye-in-the-sky”, as well as providing communication functions. Although destined for a first mission in Afghanistan, the system could in future be deployed to provide multi-function support to non-DoD users such as law enforcement agencies, scientific research organisations, border patrol organisations and aviation regulators.

The LEMV will be developed over an 18 month programme, at the end of which the system will be trialled in Afghanistan. Blue Bear will be contracted to Hybrid Air Vehicles, who will be developing the HAV304 as the LEMV platform, including design and build.
Managing Director of Blue Bear, Dr Yoge Patel, was pleased by the DoD’s decision.

“In the final analysis, the DoD chose the team best placed to deliver the required capability. The fact that the DoD selected a team with major contributions from this side of the Atlantic is testament to the world class technologies being developed in the UK. It is also a local success story, with both Blue Bear and Hybrid Air Vehicles located in Bedfordshire. We and all our partners on the team now look forward to delivering this exciting programme.”
 
Source: Blue Bear