Ever increasing threats and the need for force protection by systems that provide constant situational awareness of one's surroundings prompted Lockheed Martin to add a persistent surveillance option to its Dragon series of ISR systems.

The latest member of Lockheed Martin's Dragon Family of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) is Dragon Sentinel, an option that includes aerostats and/or tower systems for a persistent round-the-clock surveillance capability not possible with other types of manned and unmanned aircraft.

"In today's complex environment, rarely can a single platform meet all of a customer's ISR mission needs," said Jim Quinn, vice president of C4ISR Systems with Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Solutions-Defense.

"We're committed to making the Dragon ISR product family the most integrated, flexible, and cost-effective ISR solution set available. Since we're able to scale solutions to meet customer's unique mission requirements, we're able to provide customers the capability they need, in the airframe they select, affordably."

Lockheed Martin's seven Dragon ISR configurations offer a unique approach for customers to match mission requirements and budget to sensor, communications and airframe needs.

The latest option, Dragon Sentinel, is predicated on providing customers with persistent surveillance. Dragon Sentinel options may be comprised of aerostats and/or tower systems, along with one or more sensors and an associated ground system.

Persistent situational awareness is provided through the sensors integrated into the aerostat or tower, which enable customers to conduct surveillance or reconnaissance of a fixed geographic area over an extended time period.

The seven Dragon configurations extend Lockheed Martin's comprehensive ISR expertise into a broad catalogue of single and multi-purpose integrated air and ground intelligence platforms.

All Dragon configurations can be customized to meet customer mission requirements and are net-centric capable to enable Joint and Coalition interoperability.