Article Posted on : - Jun 09, 2010

Persistent Threat Detection Aerostat Systems (PTDS). Photo: Lockheed Martin.

AKRON (BNS): US Army has awarded a $142 million contract to Lockheed Martin for the production of additional Persistent Threat Detection Systems (PTDS) to support its coalition forces.

PTDS is a tethered aerostat-based system, which makes it capable of staying aloft for weeks at a time. It is equipped with multi-mission sensors and provides long endurance intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and communications support to the United States military. It helps war-fighters to detect improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

The US Army began using the system in 2004.

“The PTDS delivers real-time surveillance and actionable intelligence to our troops to help them in life-threatening situations,” Stephanie Hill, Integrated Defense Technologies vice president at Lockheed Martin Mission Systems & Sensors, said in an company official release.

Lockheed Martin will work on the system with the Army's firm-fixed-price undefinitized contract while final contract terms have to be negotiated with the US Army.

The latest systems are in addition to the previous ones the Army ordered from Lockheed Martin in the past six months.

PTDS is filled with helium and therefore it has less manufacturing cost. The system is attached by a high-strength tether to a re-locatable mooring system and carries different types of surveillance equipment to conduct multiple missions.