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Grumman Building Football Field-Sized Robotic Surveillance Blimp

Posted by Unknown on from the evil-genius-for-a-better-tomorrow dept.

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."

5 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Back to the future! by SlowGenius · · Score: 4, Funny

    Technology that will prepare us to fight the World War I of the 21st century!

    --
    Listen to what I say, not what I mean...
    1. Re:Back to the future! by Baloroth · · Score: 5, Informative

      Or military units that lack long-range missiles. The things are designed to fly at ~20,000 feet (6km), which for reference is the exact maximum range of the longest-range Stinger missile, so you could shoot it if it was exactly overhead (it won't be, though, thats the point). And that is well above the range of non-missile ordinance as well. In other words, it's designed to be used in situations were the military is fighting relatively poorly equipped enemies (i.e. enemies that don't have long-range SAMs) for a prolonged time in rough terrain. Or in other words, the last couple wars the US has been involved in.

      On a side note, I find it amusing that some people complain about how advanced tech like the F-22 is unnecessary since no enemy is even close to a big enough threat to require something that advanced, and then other people complain when tech like this is made which would be useless against advanced enemies. Different enemies require different tools.

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
  2. also flown at Lakehurst: The Hindenburg by aberson · · Score: 4, Funny

    also flown at Lakehurst: The Hindenburg

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster

  3. Re:Helium?! by captainpanic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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?

    Because there is no point in doing surveillance over non-populated areas. It may be unmanned, but there are people under it.

  4. Re:Helium?! by dontclapthrowmoney · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Maybe they should fill it with hydrogen, fly it at very low altitude, and coat it with ball bearings to dissuade people from shooting at it.