The News Journal • June 25, 2010

Delaware Gov. Jack Markell and his economic development chief, Alan Levin, joined ILC officials Thursday afternoon for a ribbon-cutting at the company’s new 60,000-square-foot production warehouse at the Kent County AeroPark in south Dover.

ILC has already put 45 people to work there building the airships. The company expects to expand that work force to between 70 and 75 employees by the end of next month.

ILC did not receive any state economic development money to lease the space in Dover but ILC president Bill Wallach said state officials helped it close on its new contract by expediting permitting processes. ILC started looking for space in February, signed a contract in late March, and started production on May 3.

“We live and die by whether or not we are successful serving the employers that put people to work,” Markell said Thursday.

ILC’s customer is not the U.S. military, but Lockheed Martin, a major defense contractor based in Bethesda, Md. The $21 million contract calls for ILC to deliver 30 of the airships by the end of this year, said Kevin Conlon, ILC’s production manager at the Dover facility. It has already delivered seven.

The helium-filled airships — or aerostats — look nearly identical to blimps that patrol sporting events. They are 117 feet long, 39 feet in diameter, and have radar systems attached that can track insurgents planting improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, below.

The airships are unmanned and typically float at altitudes ranging from 5,000 to 15,000 feet, but are always tethered to a base on the ground.

ILC has also recently partnered with another defense contractor, Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman, to build larger, free-flying airships that the military will use for surveillance and reconnaissance missions in Afghanistan.

ILC employs about 425 people in Delaware.

Here is the link to the article from DelawareOnline.com:

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20106250329