Posted on 07/26/2013 2:13:50 AM PDT by TexGrill
A pair of high-tech Army blimps is coming to the greater Washington, DC area, and soon they will be able to provide the military with surveillance powers that spans hundreds of millions of acres from North Carolina to Niagara Falls, Canada.
The airships are part of Raytheon’s Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, or JLENS, and when all is said and done they’ll offer the United States military what the defense contractor calls “an affordable elevated, persistent over-the-horizon sensor system” that relies on “a powerful integrated radar system to detect, track and target a variety of threats.”
Raytheon has just wrapped up a six-week testing period in the state of Utah and is now sending its JLENS fleet to the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Once there, the Army intends to get some hands-on experience that will eventually culminate in launching the pair of airships over Washington, DC.
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
In order to surveil Washington, it would not have to be anywhere near Washington proper. The problem with cruise missiles is that they can literally “fly under the radar”. A surface based microwave radar can only see targets once they are close enough that they above the horizon, which means for good coverage, you need to have a great number of radar stations. An airborne radar, like AWACS or JLENS can see targets near the surface for hundreds of miles. They can use Doppler to distinguish fast moving cruise missiles and aircraft from vehicles and ground returns.
I’m wondering if they’ve created a balloon borne JSTARS capable of tracking a single Human on the ground as well as all the vehicular traffic?
At the least though this does demonstrate a few things, paranoia is but one of them.
> And to the NSA trolls, FU.
Double portion their domestic spying program.
The feral government is more afraid of them becoming your friends than your enemy by far though. Remember many of their guys ARE former hackers. They worry about them straying and have to keep their eyes on them all the time. I’m pretty sure there are some that dont like what their government is doing to its people right now. Watch for more Snowdens to emerge. Its only a matter of time.
Seems that defense contractor facilities would be asymetrical targets.
I keep picturing Rosie, Christie, Michael Moore and Jerry Nadler floating around overhead. Maybe a dug-up Teddy, too.
Ok, so where would these cruise missiles be coming from?
Why don’t they tether one to IRS HQ?
Coming to a town near you soon.
We need to dig George Orwell up, remove Lincoln from the chair at his memorial and seat old George in it so he can see that he could actually watch life play out by the game-plan he wrote about in his book 1984.
WE HAVE DUPLICATED THE WRITINGS OF 1984 IN REAL LIFE!
Don’t worry, Moochie will declare them too fat and have them grounded.
After awhile the government will probably add other sensors to the balloons. The defense department is already developing huge format cameras that will be used to ID and track people.
Good point, it underscores EXACTLY how DC looks at us peons out in the area beyond the beltway. Funny, having coffee yesterday with a buddy and he blurted out exactly this: you know, I feel like my country feels I am the enemy. I told him not only do those in DC feel that way, they treat us that way too. Today Citizen means someone whom they can take advantage of. It used to be that a Citizen of Rome was free to move about and whoe be it to some clown non citizen who would bring him harm. Today, the alien is given an award or at the least, a pass.
The same existed in Texas also
They were removed not too long ago as I recall
They were removed because the government is not interested in stopping drugs or the illegals.
They call those “humans on the ground” DISMOUNTS. And, yes, they are highly interested in that.
The JLENS system tied to an automated targeting system suggests that they are also very concerned about missile and UAV attacks and want an intercept capability.
Think Benghazi and airports
Actually, I really don’t care whether DC is protected or not.
Installing such a system indicates to me that the government knows full well their DHS, FBI, NSA et al interdiction systems DOES NOT WORK, even despite the massive attacks on our Constitutionally affirmed freedoms.
So, it is relegated to a “Protect the System” role which should have been taken out by free and fair elections anyway.
Trust the Military to come up with a term that completely de-humanizes the “potential” enemy.
On the other hand... I am completely awed at how military technology has changed in only one hundred years from the Dawn of WW 1 to now.
The article noted cruze missiles.
I take that to mean ship mounted low flying bombs with rather short range
Ya think?
What happened to USSID 18?
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