ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., 13 January 2005. Proxity, Inc. and its operating subsidiary Cyber Defense Systems, Inc. announce Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) and Techsphere Systems International, LLC (TSI) have received a purchase order for the initial development of a high altitude airship.
The project will be managed by the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). NAVAIR recently contracted with CYDF and has been flight-testing the SA-60 spherical airship to evaluate its potential to satisfy future military and defense requirements.
The SA-60 is a prototype developed by TSI. CYDF has an exclusive marketing agreement with TSI for all of their products. The Prime contractor, SNC, through an exclusive partnership agreement, will provide technology, payload, and sensor integration for the ongoing project.
According to published reports, NAVAIR's purpose in conducting the demonstrations was to evaluate the performance characteristics of the SA-60 spherical airship, and provide quantitative analysis to the Navy and other Services for consideration on a variety of future missions.
"The main thing NAVAIR is interested in is economical, persistent surveillance...an airship provides that better than any other vehicle. Airships can operate at 25-30 percent the cost of comparable rotary wing or fixed wing aircraft," said Stephen Huett, director of airship programs for NAVAIR, in a June 29 story in Aviation Week magazine.
TSI, CYDF and SNC's joint marketing and lobbing efforts have helped create an awareness of the benefits of airships uses in a number of surveillance and communication capacities, according to Techsphere President Mike Lawson. The companies are moving forward with plans to build an unmanned operational version that will be able to reach and maintain an altitude of 20,000 feet, and fly for up to two days. Delivery is planned in late spring.
Proxity, Inc. is a developmental holding company specializing in the deployment and marketing of security protection technology and government contract fulfillment. The Company seeks to acquire and develop security technology. Proxity plans to enter into teaming and exclusive and nonexclusive marketing and distribution agreements with products developed for commercial, military and homeland defense. For more information, see www.proxity.com.
Cyber Defense Systems, Inc., an operating subsidiary of Proxity Digital Networks, is assembling a team of military experts, aerospace and composite engineers to design and build a new generation of UAV's. Cyber plans also to market their UAV's to various branches of the U.S. government and U.S. allies as multi-use platform vehicles capable of deployment in surveillance and communication operations. Their prospective clients all share the need for enhanced security, mobile communication platforms and increased surveillance capabilities. For more information, see www.cyberdefensesystems.com.
Techsphere Systems International, LLC, located in Atlanta and Columbus, Ga., is the manufacturer of low, mid and high altitude airships. TSI together with their teaming companies will design and build unique airship platforms for use in many areas including surveillance, the military and wireless communications. The current spherical airship design holds the current world altitude record, which is over 20,000 feet. For more information, see www.techsphere.us.
Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is a fast-growing research, development and manufacturing company that provides leading-edge Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Network-centric communications technologies on multiple platforms ranging from soldier-based to small and large manned/unmanned aircraft. SNC also specializes in the design and production of defense electronics products in the fields of Instrumentation, Test and Training (ITT), Electronic Warfare (EW), Air Traffic Control and Automatic Landing Systems (ATCALS), Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV's) and Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Networking (C4N).
SNC is a $200M+ company with a corporate office based in Reno, Nev. and does business with all branches of the US DoD, as well as with certain government agencies. Sierra Nevada Corp. owns the SA-60 Airship that flew for the recent Navy test flights and holds the exclusive integration contract rights for government end users of Techsphere's airships. For more information, see www.sncorp.com.
