This has been in the works for decades and I suspect that it will work well. They have spent a lot of time to come up with a suitable platform and it is going to be valuable.
As far as protection, I doubt that they have let that go. It is probably very difficult to shoot down. Most likely oompartmentalized envelope etc.
I dunno. I can se this being useful in extremely unique operations. It lifts 66 tons...half of what a C-5 can lift. Sure, it needs no runway, but neither to helicopters...and the Chinook lifts 14 tons...so 5 helicopters can do the job of this blimp.
I imagine the advantage this blimp has is a very long range, compared to a helicopter. So, in theory, it can go to very remote areas, or altitudes that helicopters can’t easily reach. The article didn’t list speed; but, I bet its slow. So I don’t think it would be used to insert a SEAL team for example. Rather, it would get a self propelled howitzer placed up on top of a mountaintop if Afghanistan, for example...where this would have previously been impossible due to a Chinook’s altitude restrictions.
So, I see some uses...but I don’t think they would ever, in a million years, fly this thing where there was a good probability of getting shot at. Even if the blimp is resilent and compartmentalized, the enemy could just fire rockets at the cargo, and get it ignited.