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Grumman Building Football Field-Sized Robotic Surveillance Blimp
colinneagle writes with news of the latest in 1930s surveillance technology turned into a robot. From the article: "It's not fashionable to call this flying spy (hybrid military airship) a 'blimp,' but a Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV). You are no doubt familiar with the Goodyear blimp that hovers over football games, but the LEMV is almost the size of a seven-story flying football field; it's meant to fly at speeds between 30 and 80 knots without ceasing for 21 straight days while providing an 'unblinking' eye of surveillance. Northrop Grumman has a $517 million contract to build three of these 21st-century robotic airships for the U.S. Army. The first of three had a successful 90-minute test flight last week from the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. This first test flight included two pilots, but the Army intends for the LEMV to be like the Predator, an unmanned flying surveillance machine. Both Northrop Grumman and the Army must like the term 'unblinking,' as it was used several times to describe the 'Revolutionary ISR Weapon System' aka the LEMV."
Slashdotters building model rocket sized missiles.
Technology that will prepare us to fight the World War I of the 21st century!
Listen to what I say, not what I mean...
Everybody needs to get a blimp.
Blank until
I'm having Blade Runner flashbacks.
Flashbacks to the future are strange.
Goodyear? No the worst...
Insert obligatory "welcome our x overlords" here.
"Dance like nobody's watching"
Obviously, something has to help guide all those robot bombs.
also flown at Lakehurst: The Hindenburg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster
Isn't obvious to everyone that this is for domestic or "friendly' spying?
I guess it is to replace the "urban flies" that are in use today but really expensive to run for extended periods...
I just don't get why it needs to be so big. You would think they would go small and many to enhance their chilling effect.
Maybe this is just to scare unwitting populaces that the vorgons have arrived and they will destroy their pitiful sub-continent if they don't comply with their RIAA demands.
Hmm, the humour and sarcasm seem to have been be lost on you.
Yep. That will work just fine.
Why is Snark Required?
Why is it bouyed with helium, which is incredibly expensive?
It's unmanned, so why not use hydrogen? Who cares if they lose the odd one to lightening?
Is that soccer fields or rugby (aka american football) fields?
Looking at the drawing, I already know where they intend to use these things.
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FTFA >> "The LEMV is expected to be deployed and hovering over Afghanistan skies by January 2012."
And if you believe that I have some junk bonds I'd like to sell you.
80 knots = ~ 92mph. That's a slow crawl compared to other aircraft. And it can fly at 20,000 feet. Sitting duck for a SAM.
A big, slow air vehicle like that isn't practical for flying over an overseas theater. So I wonder who this thing is designed to watch?
Oh, that's right. Us.
abou7 a pro6ect
Sauron's unblinking eye will be watching all of us.
First reported flying in Popular Science in the late '90s, I think, and the source of an incredible number of UFO reports across the country and in Iraq. Look it up.
Now they're going to get paid twice to "design" it and "build" it. Must be nice.
Think nothing of the kind
There is no true escape
I'm watching all the time
>> Northrop Grumman has a $517 million contract to build three (blimps) for the U.S. Army.
It allegedly costs only $2M to build a Goodyear blimp. Wish I knew how to land government contracts like these.
I would have thought they'd at least add solar panels and electric engines to extend the time their unblinking eye stays on target indefinitely.
Home of the free, land of the slave.
You know this will be used on the civilian population in the US don't you...
they're immantizing the Gernsback continuum!
Watch you for falling refrigerators!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Anyone else feeling reminded of Bullfrog's classic PC game Syndicate? Can't wait to see corporations (e.g. Academi/Blackwater) buying these to supervise their missions.Oh, and please let them send out cyborgs with miniguns and mind control devices.
Computer simulation made easy -- LibGeoDecomp
Owen Wilson - "Size matters. But in the spy world, it's reverse."
...reborn.
Now life imitates art.
An effective "democracy" creates the illusion the people have a say in their government.
This has no role in the battlefield due to its size, speed and defense capabilities. This blimp is intended for use within US borders.
I'm sure every major city will have one soon enough.
Not so much in terms of it being a big blimp, but in other things... people have been reporting really big UFO's for years now. Many have said things like "Multi-Story" and "Big as a football field"... And now we are being told about a flying surveillance thing that fits those descriptions really well.
So the question has to be asked : Could this thing have been making the rounds for a decade now already? And if so, why is it doing so over US airspace?
the chase scene might be a bit boring.
It's a jobs program. See, about 60 days after it is deployed in theater, there will be 5 people that want to launch a weapon at it to see if they can take it down, and 1 of them will work.
Nobel Prize Winner Warns We're Running Out Of Helium
Let's see... SAMs shouldn't have a hard time shooting a target of this size down. I imagine it would be difficult to move this thing out of the way of a storm as well. They should be looking at arrays of weather-balloon type devices or something. Perhaps just use satellites? This seems bald stupidity.
(%i1) factor(777353);
(%o1) 777353
Yes, that good old international dimensional unit.
It must be acknowledged the potential this odious beast holds for amusement. If this blubberous tyrannical skywhale were to get an infection, it could be quite a show. Maybe Anonymous will hack into the elephantine data-pig and make it hover over the pentagon while playing Kitaro for all 21 of its days. I hope Grumman has taken this into consideration and prepared the bastard with ample laser-disco-balls and extraordinary speakers. But instead of puking forth an abundance of guns like in Zardoz, it can spit out military-grade amphetamines, contraceptives and buckyballs.
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
Wouldn't a weather balloon do?
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While driving at night in the desert near Yuma AZ over a decade ago, I saw indicator lights on the tips of a huge triangle. The only reasonable explanation I could come up with was either a very large inflatable aircraft, or a very very slow flying formation of smaller aircraft. I doubt this is actually a new development.. more of an announcement of a project that has already been in play for some time.
Somebody took the whole "Spawn More Overlords" thing a bit too seriously.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Where's my BB gun...
The greatest right given is the right to be wrong...
Anyone else notice that the cost for just *3* of these things is half a billion dollars, assuming no cost overruns?
http://wh.gov/YuEi
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
Perhaps in the not so distant future people believe that surveillance is that big thing shadowing the sun, not realizing it's all around them hidden in plain sight or under a microscope.
Perhaps not the best surveillance platform in a country where anyone can buy a 50-calibre sniper rifle.
"to fly at speeds between 30 and 80 knots without ceasing for 21 straight days while providing an 'unblinking' eye of surveillance"
So, by day 22, will there be the paddling of the swollen rump before I get to be a member of the surveillance Stonecutters?
Daily read for tech news: Freezenet.ca
The Us is already using something very similar to these in Afghanistan( I was there 18 months). They are smaller versions, but they use them to kep an "eye" out for suspisious and Al-Qaida/Taliban activity.
Sounds like a great base for radar or electronics monitoring.
Imagine the weight this thing could carry...
And for buoyancy, Congress could supply a never ending source of hot air.
They even set the stage for non-military use:
They can track important convoys, key roadways, or other key infrastructure as semi-permanent overwatch escorts, monitor an urban area of interest to prep for major battles or enforce security, or focus on shutting down border chokepoints.
[ * emphasis mine ]
Just like drones, they already have civilian uses in mind.
Think COBRA mother ship.
Watched Sky Captain: Check
Watched Avengers: Double Check!
Especially the ultimate enemy: your own citizens.