Sky Sentinel is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) airship designed for long-duration operation of an automated surveillance platform.
The airship flies at altitudes up to 3,000 meters (10,000 ft) and can remain aloft for up to 18 hours. It carries a sensor suite payload of up to 140 kilograms (300 lb). The airship is 30 m (98 ft) long and contains 740 m3 (26,000 cu ft) of helium to provide lift. [1]
A follow-on model—Sky Sentinel 2— is planned to support flying at altitudes up to 3,000 meters (10,000 ft) while remaining aloft for up to 26 hours with a 180 kilograms (400 lb) sensor suite. [2]
The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is a high-altitude, remotely-piloted surveillance aircraft introduced in 2001. It was initially designed by Ryan Aeronautical, and known as Tier II+ during development. The RQ-4 provides a broad overview and systematic surveillance using high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors with long loiter times over target areas. It can survey as much as 40,000 square miles (100,000 km2) of terrain per day, an area the size of South Korea or Iceland.
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