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Army's blimp-like airships get East Coast test (ICBM detection)
stripes.com ^ | December 17, 2014 | DAVID DISHNEAU

Posted on 12/17/2014 7:16:29 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach

U.S. Air Force Col. William Pitts stands in front of an unmanned aerostat that is part of a new U.S. military cruise-missile defense system during a media preview on Dec. 17, 2014, in Middle River, Md.

Patrick Semansky/AP

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MIDDLE RIVER, Md. -- The Army showed off a blimp-like airship Wednesday that is designed to help the military detect and destroy cruise missiles speeding toward the nation's capital or other major East Coast cities.

The radar-toting vehicle will be launched next week as part of a three-year test of the system at Aberdeen Proving Ground, about 25 miles northeast of Baltimore.

When fully deployed next spring, the system will feature two, unmanned, helium-filled aerostats, tethered to concrete pads 4 miles apart. They'll float at an altitude of 10,000 feet, about one-third as high as a commercial airliner's cruising altitude.

One balloon will continuously scan in a circle from upstate New York to North Carolina's Outer Banks, and as far west as central Ohio. The other will carry precision radar to help the military on the ground to pinpoint targets.

(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: blimp; miltech
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; blueyon; KitJ; T Minus Four; xzins; CMS; The Sailor; ab01; txradioguy; ...

Active Duty ping.


21 posted on 12/17/2014 7:47:49 PM PST by Jet Jaguar (Resist in place.)
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To: Rockpile

“Yep, that’s an incoming IC.....bzzzt....boom!!”

Simply brilliant plan.


22 posted on 12/17/2014 7:48:13 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: wrench
I am a big believer in using mature technology that still works.

Which is why the U2 is still flying after half a century and Global Hawk is not

23 posted on 12/17/2014 7:48:53 PM PST by mylife
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To: redcatcherb412

Club K


24 posted on 12/17/2014 7:53:50 PM PST by wrench
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To: mylife

Yes, and this barrage balloon is designed to guard the border between New York and Ohio.


25 posted on 12/17/2014 7:56:28 PM PST by PAR35
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To: PAR35

Bet it covers more than that.


26 posted on 12/17/2014 8:02:23 PM PST by mylife
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To: Rockpile
Yeah.... ;-)

It is my understanding they are primarily intended to spot cruise missiles. I wonder what their angle/field of view is though? If they look out to and even slightly above the horizon they could see sub-launched ICBMs I guess...

But with all that ability to detect and track a low flying cruise missile amid all that background clutter... I wonder how good their detection, clutter rejection, resolution, and moving target tracking is? Could they track regular ground vehicles too? People?

27 posted on 12/17/2014 8:07:09 PM PST by ThunderSleeps (Stop obarma now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
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To: AU72

Actually, aerostats go back to the American Civil War being used as visual observation posts.


28 posted on 12/17/2014 8:09:16 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: ThunderSleeps

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/12/17/the_army_s_jlens_surveillance_blimp_takes_to_the_skies_over_maryland.html


29 posted on 12/17/2014 8:29:37 PM PST by willyd (I for one welcome our NSA overlords)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom; Talisker

Uhh, I was just pointing out that ICBMs are NOT cruise missiles.


30 posted on 12/17/2014 8:55:08 PM PST by Rockpile
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To: ThunderSleeps

Well, I know a guy who used to work at the airship site in the Texas Big Bend country and he said they could see moving motor vehicles.


Could this indicate that someone is worried about a strike from a cargo ship or a sub launched from a couple hundred miles out to sea?

The Socialist Labor gang had a plan refuel aircraft from U-boats to bomb New York and Japan did launch planes from subs off the West Coast once or twice.


31 posted on 12/17/2014 9:08:38 PM PST by Rockpile
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To: Rockpile

And i was mocking the stupidity of the headline writer to even confuse ICBM w a cruise missile. A local blimp to spot inbound MIRV warheads— you’d have a couple of seconds of warning.


32 posted on 12/17/2014 9:11:41 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Why the Army? Shouldn’t this be the USAF?


33 posted on 12/17/2014 9:11:49 PM PST by Carry_Okie (Those who profess noblesse oblige regress to droit du seigneur.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Why should this be radar only? Shouldn’t it also have a laser? I just don’t get this project at all.


34 posted on 12/17/2014 9:14:37 PM PST by Carry_Okie (Those who profess noblesse oblige regress to droit du seigneur.)
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To: Carry_Okie

The Army has traditionally had the tasking of coastal defense of the country and in the modern era they operated the anti-aircraft missiles along with artillery.

Trivia bit-———The B17 got the moniker of Flying Fortress in the 1930s when the Army Air Corps was trying to pry funding out of Congress. They sold the program as a defensive extension of the Coast Artillery and not as an offensive weapon for foreign war. Attack an enemy fleet when it was further out to sea.

The name had nothing to do with the plane’s machine guns since the early Forts hardly had any.


35 posted on 12/17/2014 9:22:56 PM PST by Rockpile
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To: Rockpile
The Army has traditionally had the tasking of coastal defense of the country and in the modern era they operated the anti-aircraft missiles along with artillery.

That's a little too "traditional" for my taste given that the USAF has the task of managing air space for ICBMs and aircraft.

They sold the program as a defensive extension of the Coast Artillery and not as an offensive weapon for foreign war.

In the valley below me is a road that was paved in 1919 with 5" of heavily reinforced concrete on the excuse that the Army would use it for transporting artillery to the coast, which they did once a year. It was pure pork.

36 posted on 12/17/2014 9:29:10 PM PST by Carry_Okie (Those who profess noblesse oblige regress to droit du seigneur.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
BTW, I need to tune up my sarc detector 😁
37 posted on 12/17/2014 10:01:44 PM PST by Rockpile
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To: Rockpile

I grew up and lived near a Nike Site in my neighborhood. IIRC, they were run by the Army.


38 posted on 12/17/2014 10:44:10 PM PST by Nowhere Man (Mom I miss you! (8-20-1938 to 11-18-2013) Cancer sucks)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

If I were an enemy of the U.S., I’d put a high powered laser on a sub that could burn holes across the blimp’s helium compartments.


39 posted on 12/17/2014 11:24:25 PM PST by ConservativeMind ("Humane" = "Don't pen up pets or eat meat, but allow infanticide, abortion, and euthanasia.")
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To: wrench

http://www.aopa.org/Pilot-Resources/Safety-and-Technique/Accident-Analysis/Accident-Statistics/ePilot-Reports/airship-tether-severs-cessna-wing-killing-three

The picture of the platform is identical as well in the above article. Also seems like a platform that should be along the border with Mexico, well, if we were serious about stopping illegal trafficking along the border.


40 posted on 12/18/2014 12:06:00 AM PST by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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