Posted on 01/22/2014 9:45:45 PM PST by Seizethecarp
The aerostats — that is the term for lighter-than-air craft that are tethered to the ground — are to be set aloft on Army-owned land about 45 miles northeast of Washington, near Aberdeen Proving Ground, for a three-year test slated to start in October. From a vantage of 10,000 feet, they will cast a vast radar net from Raleigh, N.C., to Boston and out to Lake Erie, with the goal of detecting cruise missiles or enemy aircraft so they could be intercepted before reaching the capital.
Defense contractor Raytheon last year touted an exercise in which it outfitted the aerostats planned for deployment in suburban Baltimore with one of the company’s most powerful high-altitude surveillance systems, capable of spotting individual people and vehicles from a distance of many miles.
The Army said it has “no current plans” to mount such cameras or infrared sensors on the aerostats or to share information with federal, state or local law enforcement, but it declined to rule out either possibility.
The aerostats planned for Maryland will have radar capable of detecting airborne objects from up to 340 miles away and vehicles on the surface from up to 140 miles away — as far south as Richmond, as far west as Cumberland, Md., and as far north as Staten Island. The Army declined to say what size vehicles can be sensed from those distances.
For the Raytheon test, the MTS-B spotted a person pretending to be a terrorist planting an improvised roadside bomb, even though the view was obscured by smoke from a nearby forest fire, according to a Raytheon news release from January 2013. Operators could see live feeds of “trucks, trains and cars from dozens of miles away.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
>20 replies, woo-hoo! We might make it past 50 before somebody sees the first word of the headline (BLIMP) and finds some lame excuse to bring up a certain portly, loudmouthed Governor from a certain east coast state. That same Gov. in the middle of a nothingburger fake scandal about a bridge.
There is one out side Yuma AZ.
The blimp would turn into a blump.
Looks like a huge Manatee!
“Is that balloon Russian?”
Apparently. However tethered balloons were used during the Civil War.
How will this do in bad weather? The US Navy abandoned their airship program after two horrific losses. These things are severely limited by flight conditions
Oh, silly person. What a concept. People crossing our southern border? Gotta watch for all those desparate fanatical Virginians crossing the Chesapeake from the Northern Neck. OTOH, keeping watch on Biden’s people coming over from delaware does have its meteris. Any state that would elect him has to have more than a few people with loose screws.
Aircraft collisions? 10,000 ft.? Scary.
They don’t fly -they’re tethered to their ground control station.
Just ask the British who had their homes targeted with infrared to detect heat escaping from their Windows and were fined for wasting energy.
Put the blimp up after 2016.
I guess they read that the Iranians announced they are sending warships to the Atlantic Ocean to patrol our East coast
They may be tethered, but they are still subject to weather conditions. High winds play havoc with the tethers, attachment points and anchoring
Yes like the barrage balloons during the second World War. But they don't do well in say strong wind, snow or icing conditions. Never mind that they will be a rich target for any bored hunter with a high powered rifle.
At 10,000’ and supposedly bullet proof fabric I don’t see a hunter shooting one down unless he has a howitzer. Something like one of these flew over Camp Victory, Baghad when I was there. Even though we took lots of rockets and small arms fire on base it was never shot down to my knowledge.
Per the article:
“Even a rifle shot through an aerostat will not bring it down, because the pressure of the helium inside nearly matches the pressure of the air outside, preventing rapid deflation.”
“Even a rifle shot through an aerostat will not bring it down, because the pressure of the helium inside nearly matches the pressure of the air outside, preventing rapid deflation.”
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