Posted on 03/13/2009 12:30:19 PM PDT by BGHater
The giant dirigible would use radar to closely and constantly monitor activity on the ground from 65,000 feet.
The Pentagon said Thursday that it intends to spend $400 million to develop a giant dirigible that will float 65,000 feet above the Earth for 10 years, providing unblinking and intricate radar surveillance of the vehicles, planes and even people below.
"It is absolutely revolutionary," Werner J.A. Dahm, chief scientist for the Air Force, said of the proposed unmanned airship -- describing it as a cross between a satellite and a spy plane.
The 450-foot-long craft would give the U.S. military a better understanding of an adversary's movements, habits and tactics, officials said. And the ability to constantly monitor small movements in a wide area -- the Afghanistan- Pakistan border, for example -- would dramatically improve military intelligence.
"It is constant surveillance, uninterrupted," Dahm said. "When you only have a short-time view -- whether it is a few hours or a few days -- that is not enough to put the picture together."
The project reflects a shift in Pentagon planning and spending priorities under Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who has urged the military services to improve intelligence and surveillance operations while cutting high-tech weaponry costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
What is the saying... What was old is new again.
Right?
Would have probably been valuable in Iraq and Afghanistan, but what major country is going to allow a vehicle to float around in their airspace spying on them?
This thing is wishful thinking for some project manager/engineer. Blimps will never work because they cannot withstand turbulence and wind speeds at the altitudes they will fly. Flying to the target area, navigation, staying on target just will not work. Their structural weaknesses and powerplant/fuel loads just will not allow it.
“And what could possibly go wrong?”
Ooohhh the humanity....
Those Skyhook balloons were spectacularly visible for hours after dusk. Many an evening I lay out for hours on our picnic table, stargazing and taking an occasional long look at those big, coppery-looking orbs...
But at 65,000 feet you could be sitting miles on the save side of a boarder. Any thing launched at it from ground to air would probably immediately be detected and shoot down with anti missile technology on the ground. Any aircraft that tried to get close to it would also probably be shot down.
And if it had a 24 hour monitoring on it then anything that could shot it down (from the ground)we would be recording it through live transmissions to the ground like live TV and have a record of it on ground and could retaliate within minutes. Anything big enough to shot a missile that high would big, and you couldn't hide it really easily. The terrorist we are fighting don't spend large amount of money for things that big and expensive.
You mean they've got weather up their that high. I would think after the first couple miles up you would get away from that stuff.
That’s one of at least three - I see one from my bedroom window...!
Called the jetstream that high. I have heard of it blowing 200mph before but stuff over 100 is not uncommon.
This project is wishful thinking, will never work out.
Well I did a little bit of googling to find out how high jet streams are and from my quick search I found that most are 2-6 miles high with a possibility of 8 miles high, can't remember the highest number but anyway lets say 10 miles high is the highest, well I think the height they want to fly this balloon is 2-3 miles above that.
Uhhhh, how do you think they will get up to altitude and back down without dealing with the jetstreams? How can you even compare an SR71 to a blimp? An SR71 is the essence of streamling build to go 3,000mph and not a very unstreamlined blimp.
Just think about not too long ago when you were a child and had a baloon outside with just a 10 mph wind. Kinda hard to deal with it wasn’t it? Now just think of a oval shaped baloon 100’ long in a 50 mph wind. Now think about trying to hold station over a target in those conditions or just trying to pass thru jetstreams during the climbout or descent.
Nuff said.
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