Blimps
Guys,
Got this off another list
Blimps to bolster D.C.'s air shield in test
A pair of big, blimp-like craft, moored to the ground and flying as high
as 10,000 feet, are to be added to a high-tech shield designed to protect
the Washington, D.C.-area from air attack, at least for a while. The bulbous,
helium-filled "aerostats" - each more than three quarters the length of a
football field at 243 feet - are to be stitched into existing defenses as
part of an exercise of new technology ordered by the Defense Department.
The coming addition to the umbrella over Washington is known as the Joint
Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, or JLENS.
The Raytheon Co. is the prime contractor.
"We're trying to determine how the surveillance radar information from
the JLENS platforms can be integrated with existing systems in the
National Capital Region," said Michael Kucharek, a spokesman for the North
American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). NORAD, a binational command, is
responsible for defending air space over the United States and Canada, including
the Washington area, with its many pieces of important infrastructure.
The most significant air attack in the area took place on Sept. 11,
2001, when al-Qaida militants hijacked American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing
757, and crashed it into the Pentagon.
To expand the time available to detect and defend against any future
attacks from commercial aircraft, major changes were made under Operation
Noble Eagle, combat air patrols begun after the Sept. 11 attacks. Air space
restrictions were extended. U.S. Army Sentinel radars for low-altitude radar
coverage and short-range Stinger/Avenger missile batteries were deployed.
Washington is currently guarded by an air-defense system that includes
FAA radars and Department of Homeland Security helicopters and fixed-wing
aircraft on alert at Reagan National Airport to intercept slow, low-flying
aircraft.
The JLENS craft are expected to arrive in the capital area by Sept.
30, according to Kucharek, who is also a spokesman for the U.S. Northern
Command (NORTHCOM), which coordinates the Pentagon's homeland defense role.
A "capabilities demonstration," as the test is called, is expected to
last as long as three years. Its location is being withheld, pending
notification of lawmakers and others.
JLENS craft work in a roughly $450 million pair, known as an orbit,
each tethered to mobile moorings. One of the aerostats carries a powerful
long-range surveillance radar with a 360-degree look-around capability that
can reach out to 340 miles. The other carries a radar used for targeting.
Operating as high as 10,000 feet for up to 30 days at a time, JLENS is meant
to give the military more time to detect and react to threats, including
cruise missiles and manned and unmanned aircraft, compared with ground-based
radar. The system is also designed to defend against tactical ballistic
missiles, large caliber rockets and moving vehicles that could be used for
attacks, including boats, cars and trucks.
A success in the U.S. capital area could give a boost to the JLENS
program, which has been scaled back sharply along with the Pentagon's other 15
or so lighter-than-air vehicle efforts.
Blimp-like craft offer several advantages compared with fixed-wing
aircraft, including lower cost, larger payload capacity and extended time
aloft. However, their funding is to fall sharply as Pentagon spending shrinks
to help pare trillion-dollar-a-year U.S. deficits.
Peter Huessy, a consultant on nuclear deterrence and missile defense,
said the system would compliment current U.S. missile-defense capabilities.
