Army's Giant Surveillance Blimp to Start Tracking Objects in DC Region
Source: Defense News
While Congress debates the merits of spending tens of millions of dollars to add missile interceptors on the East Coast while increasing the number already in place out West, a long-running developmental Army radar system is packing up and heading for Maryland.
From May 4 to June 14, Raytheons JLENS, or Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, was put through its paces by about 100 soldiers during user assessment tests out in Utah, but the company announced today that the 74-foot-high tethered airship is now headed to the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland for a more ambitious operational assessment run by the US Northern Command.
The soldiers who were trained up to use the system in Utah will make the trip with the airship, but since JLENS will be running on a 24/7 basis once on the East Coastand tracking anything that flies, drives, or floats near the National Capital Regionmore soldiers will be trained to operate it before the assessments kick off in 2014.
Read more: http://blogs.defensenews.com/intercepts/2013/07/armys-giant-surveillance-blimp-to-start-tracking-objects-in-dc-region
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)bunnies
(15,859 posts)Why?
Berlum
(7,044 posts)Ford_Prefect
(7,918 posts)JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)And I hear it's going to have a fricken laser-beam attached to its head.
Arctic Dave
(13,812 posts)Was there not enough cameras in DC already.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)beyond the obvious problem of tracking/filming/tracing/watching/listening to our every move
it is interesting what pro-privacy groups can develop to counter the problem.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)And he is us.
rucky
(35,211 posts)Javaman
(62,533 posts)sofa king
(10,857 posts)Cut and paste a bowler hat, a cane, and a fake eyelash, and that blimp becomes Malcolm McDowell.