[blackdog]

I think the real purpose is to provide high inventories of Hellfire missiles that can be launched at anything that flies, drives, floats, walks, or crawls in a few seconds notice. I like the idea. It is a lot cheaper and effective than scrambling F-16's every time some threat might be on the radar screen. It is also a serious response in strategy toward a multiple threat which may use diversionary strikes to cover for a real attack.

[_Jim]

I think the real purpose is to provide high inventories of Hellfire missiles

This might be a bit of a problem ... with the discharge of a missile drastically altering the 'flight' characteristics and stability which then would require some minutes to re-orient/restabilize the platform during which time the RADAR and other observation equipment will have lost any 'targets' under track prior to said launch ...

This would not be a bad follow-on contract for a few lighter than air craft whose only function was to provide a platform for missiles - but the BIG advantage is the direct line-of-sight advantage that being airborne gives RADAR and optical sighting/detection technologies ...