[meandog]

...excuse the negative wedge, but this seems like a "pie-in-the-sky" approach to SDI. I believed the military was dedicated to a more reasonable approach of stationing a new generation ABM Navy destroyer (DDX) of the coast of a hostile country to the same effect. More than three-quarters of the world is ocean, thereby putting virtually every square mile of earth in range of ship borne anti-ballistic missiles. And a blimp is too suspectable to weather; a ship isn't. Boondoggle for Lockheed!

[jjm2111]

Lockheed seems to always be susceptible to biggest and mostest like projects. In the eighties they were calling for a "Motherplane" that could carry 25 fighter jets. Needless to say, this Spruce Goose never got off the ground.

[Carbonsteel]

Is there much weather at 64000 ft?

[StolarStorm]

It already exists. It was seen over Phoenix a while back and called a "UFO".

[PoorMuttly]

...can Muttly have a 500 foot long, 160 feet in diameter, 5.2 million cubic foot long Blimp too ?

Pleeease ?!!...


Hey...there's Pie in the Sky TOO ?!!

Muttly WANT !!!!!!

That's why he needs the Blimp ! What if the Pie's too big for his little Dirigible?!

[Norse]

At 65,000 feet, weather is no problem at all. Besides, a blimp of this magnitute will be able to withstand anything except perhaps an F10 Tornado or continental-size hurricane.

It's much faster and easier to navigate by air than sea - since by air, especially at 65,000 feet, there are no limits. This idea is far superior to building destroyers

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

It would weigh less if they used hydrogen instead of helium.
They could call it a Zeppelin.

[elbucko]

...excuse the negative wedge, but this seems like a "pie-in-the-sky" approach to SDI.

No apology needed. The idea is farce. I was in air defense and ideas like this were as common as donuts at a police station. The combination I like the best is submarines and satellites. We have them. They work. We need to integrate them into a global air defense system.

A "Blimp", 500 feet long, 160 feet in diameter..

What are those people smoking?

[ASA Vet]

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

Anti-missile system to use blimp 25 times larger than Goodyear's

Well, I nominate Ted Kennedy. He's of the right size, and is full of hot air.

[pabianice]

Already extensively covered in The Journal of Electronic Defense (www.jedonline.com). See Jan, May, and Oct 2003 issues.

Also check www.navlog.org.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The blimp isn't suceptible to weather at 100,000 feet.

[Revelation 911]

yep - thats about 25 times bigger

[Iris7]

When I first read this post, my reaction was scepticism, as has been the reaction of those I address. The only smart thing I saw in it was "Textron would mount its Theater Airborne Warning System on the J-STARS [Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System] aircraft." That seemed practical.

On second thought I began to see the possiblities. This is a theater system, not strategic, first. It is a trip wire system, that is, flying outside of the target's airspace, so attacking it would be an act of war. It is designed to be "autonomous", that is, unmanned if desired, and is part force projection, part reconnaisance, and part "we are watching you". Obviously the blimp would be fairly easy to shoot down, flying at 65,000 feet, an obvious problem. So I ran a few numbers.

At 13 miles above sea level the blimp radar would "see" objects 2 miles above sea level at a range of 323 miles. The blimp would stay on station, likely using GPS, but could be moved at will. A mach 6 missle takes about 6 minutes to go 323 miles and could be watched for nearly the full time of flight. A light weight CIWS equivalent unguided rocket system plus something like Phoenix with a small nuclear warhead would give really quite good protection. A frigate with Standard missles would be a pretty good back up.

Imagine the possibilities. Three hundred miles off of North Korea, watching every move, every second. Wouldn't that jack Kim Il Jung's jaws?? hey?? How about the coast of China? The Taiwan Strait?

Nowadays, everybody knows the exact time every satellite passes over, and put all their action under a shed roof during the satellite passover. Satellites work super for naval recon, but not so hot for land recon unless backed up by aircraft - including this blimp!! Weird, sure, but looking more cool every minute!!

[OneTimeLurker]

What will this do that a satellite couldn't? Cheaper perhaps? Free up satellite resources?

[bruin66]

System in search of a mission...

[quant5]

Alright, now let's send Captain Nemo out into space with the Nautilus for $40 mil. I will be his first mate.