Airship contract lifts employment in Delaware

In Frederica, Del., ILC Dover’s claim to fame is making spacesuits for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In late June, Delaware Governor Jack Markell presided over a ribbon cutting on ILC Dover’s new 60,000-square-foot production warehouse in Dover, where 45 newly employed people are building a new product: blimp-like airships for U.S. Army surveillance missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lockheed Martin contracted with ILC Dover to deliver 30 airships by the end of 2010 at a cost of $21 million. The blimps have radar that can track insurgents planting improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and float at altitudes ranging from 5,000 to 15,000 feet. ILC Dover plans to expand its workforce at the end of July 2010.