Coming Soon To U.S. Skies: The Military’s Spying Blimp

[Purveyor]

Washington’s corridors of power have been busy in recent months dealing with the National Security Agency’s collection of private phone records and metadata, but that’s not the only issue of national security on federal officials’ radar.

Envisioning scenarios of a 9/11-like terrorist attack on Washington, D.C., the U.S. Defense Department is upgrading its defense systems to include military spying blimps.

While the blimp is viewed by most of the world as a slow-moving, floating airship strewn with advertising messages, the Pentagon is making a few military modifications to create a house-sized flying fortress that can identify potential threats on the ground. Called the Raytheon JLENS system, these flying ships will be able to track incoming missiles, armed drones and other threats from hundreds of miles away with a 360-degree radius.

Perhaps its best selling point is that system can stay in the air for 30 days without refueling or stopping for supplies.

After successful trials in Utah, the Defense Department hopes to roll out the flying spy ship sometime in 2014. With over 100 soldiers trained on the system, the spy blimp has coped well with the spine-chilling terrorist war games that the Army used to test it. It is estimated that the Defense Department will spend up to 700 percent less on the spy-ship system than on spy planes, and it is believed to give better protection. But then again, the military does not have a great record on budgeting.

more...

http://www.mintpressnews.com/coming-soon-to-u-s-skies-the-militarys-spying-blimp/165990/

[Still Sensible]

1. The DEA and/or ICE used a hovering blimp over

the border area of SE Arizona for years. I think I read that it crashed last year.

[Waiting For Everyman]

2. Lol! Oh yes, a blimp would've been a big effing help on 9/11.

NOT!

[Electric Monk]

3. Army Kills The Military’s Last Remaining Giant Spy Blimp - WIRED

The LEMV has been in trouble for awhile. A technical analysis in 2011 questioned whether the blimp could actually stay aloft for the 21 days Northrop hyped, and figured it was closer to 10. Although the ship was supposed to head to Afghanistan this year, its only flight has been its maiden August test voyage over New Jersey, which was months late. The Army, once a vocal LEMV booster, began backing away from the blimp in October.

And as the LEMV goes, so too went the military’s dreams of giant spy blimps for the foreseeable future.

more
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/02/spy-blimp-deflates/

Clearly one of these reports is wrong...

[Savannahmann]

4. That was the old system.

the new blimps are called JLENS Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System. Which is a mouthful for even the Military that loves long drawn out names for crap.