Monday, July 29, 2013

Missile-Detecting Blimps Soon To Hover Over D.C.



Within a year, a pair of souped-up $2.7 billion blimps (price includes R&D) will be floated 10,000 feet above the District of Columbia and act as a 340-mile-wide eye in the sky, detecting incoming missiles and the like. 
The design and testing phase for JLENS—the (deep breath) Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, produced by Raytheon, a major weapons manufactuer—is over, relays Program Director Doug Burgess to Popular Mechanics. Now, it is time for implementation. Or, as he puts it, "[We're] getting away from the Ph.D. engineer types running the system to the 20- or 25-year-old soldier running the system."
Click here to see a picture of how very similar blimps were used during WWII to suspend aircraft-fouling barbed wired above London

Added: Rabel does some independent research and finds that the blimps (aerostats) will be tethered: 
It has the ability to maintain persistent surveillance and monitor activity in its area of operations 24/7 for periods of twenty-five (25) days continuously at altitudes of at least 2,500 and up to 5,000 ft AGL with a mobile mooring platform emplaced at elevations of at least 6000ft above sea level (ASL) and climatic conditions characteristic of the CENTCOM AOR.

29 comments:

virgil xenophon said...

If the DOD & Congress are rational every major coastal city and military and civilian port should be so protected...but the money will probably be siphoned-off to fund the latest reincarnation of ACORN if the Donkey party has its way..

edutcher said...

The old ones were called barrage balloons.

These will probably have little NSA mics and cameras.

DADvocate said...

If Christie became president, fat chance, we'd have a blimp in the White House.

Anonymous said...

I have a friend who follows blimps, in the sense of noticing their appearances in culture, like in that 2004 movie, "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," which wasn't really in the future but in an alternate version of 1939.

But never mind. My friend considers blimp appearances shorthand cues for "we are in the future."

I guess we are in the future now.

JAL said...

Click through to the full story -- there is a description of the barrage balloons over London, which I did not know about, but hubby, for some reason did. I don't remember anything about them from the Churchill War Room museum in London. Mmm.

Actually it sounds like a good idea (watch the promo video too.)

And yes, I am sure they can be equipped with mics and cameras ... ;- )

"Person of Interest" and "NCIS-LA" are here and now.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

It annoys me that "Blimpie" holds itself out as "America's Sub Shop."

Either you're selling blimps or you're selling subs.

Make up your damn mind!

Mitch H. said...

Those barrage blimps were a lot more... passive and numerous. This would be a persistent detection system. You could probably even mount some sort of anti-missile reaction system on such blimps, although it probably would be less problematic to network them with batteries on the ground, all things being equal.

But never mind. My friend considers blimp appearances shorthand cues for "we are in the future."

Really? I consider them kind of retro. What's that term of art for lost and archaic iconography of the "future" that now appears terribly dated? Zeerust! Blimps and airships especially are classic zeerust.

Hagar said...

I believe I read about these elsewhere, and they are closer to being Zeppelin airships than "blimps."

Rabel said...

It's a tethered balloon.

JAL said...

Do not be deceived by appearances.

According to the link they are pretty sophisticated.

JAL said...

Don't know that they are tethered.
The one troubling comment on the link I saw was the flip "20 to 25 year old" "running the system" (whatever that means).

At Pearl Harbor the incoming attack was missed because some new LT blew off the radar operators' (a new technology, to be sure) report without checking it out further.

I respect our military, but I would rather not have a 20 year old newbie "running" the system. ;- )

Probably a bit of hyperbole on his part to heighten the contrast with the "PhD engineer types."

Cody Jarrett said...

Yeah, because there have been so many instances in the last 50 years where missiles were launched at Washington DC.

Fucking hell.

Trooper York said...

Hey it happens all the time. In the movies.

They have a new one where the heroic young black president defeats terrorists who hijack the White House.

It is almost like a documentary or something.

Rabel said...

Tethered it is.

Rabel said...

"Yeah, because there have been so many instances in the last 50 years where missiles were launched at Washington DC."

See what a good job they're doing.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I hope they let at least a few rockets slip past so we can see if Anderson Cooper still has what it takes.

Cody Jarrett said...

Yeah Troop, but I've heard that movie's got lower ratings than the real thing.

Blimps over DC.

Aren't there enough goddamn blimps in DC?

virgil xenophon said...

MTB@12:05pm/

And to add insult to injury Blimpie's not even an American company..

rhhardin said...

Rush caller Greg in Nashua NH says Sarah Palin is laying down the gambit. (14:27 eastern)

Cody Jarrett said...

Mmmm....Sarah Palin laying down....

deborah said...

JAL:
"The one troubling comment on the link I saw was the flip "20 to 25 year old" "running the system" (whatever that means)."

I think it means our computer game playing nephews will be grist for the mill.

deborah said...

rh:
"Rush caller Greg in Nashua NH says Sarah Palin is laying down the gambit. (14:27 eastern)"

If her gambit is to rabble rouse and run interference, you go girl.

deborah said...

Mitchell @2:51 lol what does that even mean?

JAL said...

@ Rabel --

You are correct, tethered it is.

Well since airspace is restricted anyway, I guess the chances of general aviation planes flying into the tethers is minimal, plus the design includes some kind of tether avoidance thing also.

Do the DC hospitals use medical helicopters? Those seem to be the things that fly into unexpected objects. Nothing like having a vertical cable in you rotors.

JAL said...

your

Christopher J Feola said...

IS NOT A BALLOON. iS UN AIRSHIP! GO OUTSIDE!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EQyrd1BwusQ

deborah said...

Yes, Christopher, but apparently it is to be tethered over its assigned area.

Christopher J Feola said...

Well thank you, Deborh. And please, call me chris.

If you have a moment, watch the clip. The airship appears to be flying, but all the members of the House of Lords fall into the same home. Perhaps the airship is tethered! Perhaps I should spend less time thinking about the physics of Monty Python sketches!?!

Nah.

Cjf

deborah said...

lol, Chris, I apologize for not looking at your link earlier.