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High-Tech Blimps Earning Their Wings
coondoggie writes "The US Army this week showed off its latest high-tech blimp laden with powerful radar systems capable of detecting incoming threats 340 miles away.
The helium-filled blimps, or aerostats, are designed to hover over war zones or high-security areas and be on guard for incoming missiles or other threats. The Army wants them to reduce some of the need for manned and unmanned reconnaissance flights.
The aerostat demonstrated this week is known as the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Sensor System (JLENS), which is designed to fly up to an altitude of 10,000 feet. According to GlobalSecurity.org., the $1.4 billion JLENS is a large, unpowered elevated sensor moored to the ground by a long cable. From its position above the battlefield, the elevated sensors will allow incoming cruise missiles to be detected, tracked, and engaged by surface-based air defense systems even before the targets can be seen by the systems."
I know they lose brain matter an all..but now they're floating?
A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.
Even after reading the article, it doesnt specify if that is per unit or the total cost of all the systems, including r&d. It says they are less expensive to buy and operate than comparable fixed-wing aircraft so I am hoping that is the total.
Isn't it kind of easy to shoot down blimps? Can't anything a blimp does be better done with a satellite or a loitering drone?
More like be on fire from incoming missiles.
$1.4 billion dollars? We are talking about what is basically a balloon with an instrument package slung beneath it, aren't we? I don't know about you, but I'd be willing to bet that if the purchaser was anyone but the Pentagon, the price would be at least an order of magnitude lower.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
...because everyone is shooting cruise missles at everyone else? sounds like a made up threat for a porkbarrel program
High tech! With a computer!
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
Moon the Balloon!
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
I hate to pop your balloon (pun intended) but 10,000 feet is not that high. In World War 2 the Germans had anti-aircraft guns that could easily get to much over 20,000 feet. Many cheap modern shoulder held anti-aircraft missiles can easily shoot this high and a blimp would be easy to hit. It might be safe from small arms fire but a few small holes wouldn't hurt it much. An anti-aircraft missile is another matter.
High-Tech Blimps Earning Their Wings
Blimps do not work that way!
Yet it still can't detect the low-tech truck bomb or suicide bomber that is the biggest current threat.
I saw this thing the other day about the Hindenburg and how it wasn't burning hydrogen that the world saw, but rather it was the doping compound used on the outside of the airship. Turns out the majority ingredients used in the compound are the same ones we use today... in solid rocket boosters! (The 3rd Reich knew about it back then but blamed the use of hydrogen to save face.)
Hydrogen is lighter and is easier and cheaper to create. So I have to wonder why it's not being used.
The amount of Helium on the Earth is very small (though there is lots in space). Helium is needed for medical MRIs and scientific research, but we are going to run out in a few decades. My lab is already suffering from increased Helium prices. Helium has a nasty way of escaping from containers (we're only able to recycle about a third of what we use), so these blimps are likely to waste a lot. Just like the rest of the missile defense systems, they'll never be used for their intended purpose.
Simon's Rock College
... the blimps will be seen from over 1000 miles, and the single high-altitude high-speed stealth anti-spy missile will say hello, shortly thereafter. ;)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
That billion dollar price includes the communication system between the aerostats radar and the targeting radar of other systems like anti-aircraft missile systems. So it is a very misleading number. I would guess the "blimp" or really aerostat part is less than 5% of the total cost. This is really an integrated detector system that happens to use a blimp as one of its inputs.
"capable of detecting incoming threats 340 miles away"
That's amazing detecting a straight pin from 340 miles away! (to the confused, blimps, balloons, do the math)
Wake me up when they bring back the Transatlantic Zeppelin flights. We already have a perfectly good mooring mast in New York City.
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
Why does this make me think like the Pentagon are going to start using Zergling rushes as a tactic?
... because I live on Cudjoe Key.
http://www.n-the-florida-keys.com/Fat-Albert.html
They should be able to track what ever is coming to take them out. I can't imagine it would take much and it is not like the will be able to get out of the way! If they want to use them to protect or monitor, they will have to put up enough of them to block the sun! They will be shot down in minutes.
Please don't take what you see on TV (or on the internet) at face value.
For the above to be true, one has to make a pretty wild assumption: engineers who knew how to get a 240-metre airship to fly at all were totally ignorant about the chemistry of the building materials they used. In addition to this, the papers below show that surviving pieces of the fabric covering are actually hard to ignite and slow-burning.
Here's an excellent page with papers about this thing: http://spot.colorado.edu/~dziadeck/zf/LZ129fire.htm . It states sources, authors and credentials so you don't have to trust it blindly, either.
Hope this helps.
> latest high-tech blimp laden with
> blimp laden
> blimps laden with radars to find Osama Blimp Laden?
If they haven't consulted Airship Ventures about it, then I'm sorry but I don't care.
There is only 1 Zeppelin operator here in the U.S. They are the experts.
RGGGGE
Wow. The US military spent $1.4 billion on a blimp? Designed to detect missile threats? Over _battle fields_? What century do they think that we're living in? This technology is hilariously useless...
See:
-Mutually Assured Destruction
-Guerrilla/Asymmetrical warfare
But,... should I be surprised? No. Because this is, unfortunately, typical. I guarantee that at least one part of the blimp was made in every single congressional district in the US.
lots lots easier
So except for the US, who has a huge cruise missile fleet that needs to be guarded against?
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Stop interfering in the worlds affairs and people will stop attacking you. But then people wouldn't be able to get rich by producing these over priced military goods. All this war and aggro with other peoples is just to get people flag waving and standing behind the US government system. That's why the US has been constantly at war since at least WW2.
why not first create and distribute the weapons that it can track..it should have some work...1.4 bln..floating in the air..without any job to do...naaaaah...not good.
it does sound cool though..for a flick...but why the wire hanging out?
Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Sensor System (JLENS)!!!!!!!!!!!!
why is it called JLENS? that does not equal joint land attack cruise missile defense elevated sensor system.
Meltdown alert? Mad dog drill? Blimp attack? Ah... I think a good old-fashioned fire drill today.
So now the US military will float huge sitting ducks essential for battlefield command. Which enemies will immediately target. When the blimps pop, two mile long cables will lash the battlefied, thrashing to pieces the military, civilians and landscape helpless below.
These things are like an unmanned trojan horse.
--
make install -not war
For a balloon? Then again, this is from the same organization that pays $20k for a hammer.
"From its position above the battlefield, the elevated sensors will allow incoming cruise missiles to be detected, tracked, and engaged by surface-based air defense systems even before the targets can be seen by the systems." -- I guess size... ups! I mean, detection range is really critical. If the enemy can detect the blimps before the blimps detect the enemy then a long-range enemy ground-to-air missile can easily bring the blimp down.
that get an undeserved bad review ever since hindenburg.
http://www.anticharisma.com/
one hit and they go blind but of course there are redundancy
It's a kite balloon, a straight descendant of the observational balloons of WWI. it may look blimp-like but has crucial differences. The fins are behind the envelope and are active lift structures.
Don't knock the toilet seat. It's gold and padded with plush velvet. It's the most comfortable toilet seat on the planet. If you got to use it you'd be happy to pay that much! :-)