US Army is Spending Over $2.7 Billion Building a Really Big Target Called JLENS

The Army is developing 80-yard long surveillance balloons that can pinpoint targets from beyond-the-horizon by floating up to 10,000-feet in the sky and using radar technology to locate potential targets — such as approaching enemy missiles, aircraft or unmanned systems.

So far, the Army has acquired two systems of the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, or JLENS. JLENS completed Early User Testing in the third quarter of 2013, and concluded system design and development in the fourth quarter of 2013, Raytheon officials said.

The JLENS system completed developmental testing in December of last year; one of the two systems will participate in an operational evaluation at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md., and the other is being placed in strategic reserve by the Army in case it is needed for deployments.

A single JLENS orbit, which can help defend population centers, ground troops or other assets consists of two helium-filled aerostats tethered to ground stations with a cable, Raytheon officials said.

One of the two aerostats is engineered with VHF radar technology that can scan the surrounding areas out to distances of 500 kilometers, said Douglass Burgess, JLENS director, Raytheon. The VHF radar scans 360-degrees and is designed to identify targets or areas of interest for the second aerostat which uses a more precise X-band radar, he added.

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Stratobus: Another Lighter Than Air Boondoggle...THis TIme From France

With UAVs crowding navigable airspace and plans underway to put giant mega-satellites into orbit, it was just a matter of time before a drone-satellite hybrid was developed to fit between the two spaces.

StratoBus, a new project out of France, is conceptualized to do just that. Designed to be about the length of a football field and 25 yards in diameter, the blimp-shaped vehicle’s shell will be made of carbon fiber.

Without a launcher, StratoBus floats to the lower stratosphere at an altitude of about 13 miles where developers say it will be in a perfect position to carry out a range of functions, including surveillance, border security monitoring, communications reinforcement and facilitating navigation — all from a stationary position with the help of two self-adjusting electric motors. The StratoBus will be able to endure missions of up to a year with a total lifetime of five years.

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Russia Wants Unmanned Boondoggle, ahem, Airship for Arctic Monitoring

The Russian Military-Industrial Commission on 10 March recommended the development of unmanned airship platforms manufactured by the state-owned company DKBA for the surveillance and monitoring of defence installations and movements in the Arctic.

Deployments should start in 2016, with platforms equipped with thermal imaging, electro-optical, laser, direction finding and video systems, according to local state-owned media reports.

The report was presented at an Economic Forum in Krasnoyarsk, in central Siberia: a centre for the development of hi-tech defence equipment that contains the 'closed city' of Zheleznogorsk, previously known as Krasnoyarsk-26.

The latest airship made by DKBA is reported to be able to carry 200 kg of equipment and to patrol at an altitude of more than 30,000 ft.

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Airship Boondoggle Rises Again! FOR SCIENCE!

The problem, of course, is that airships capable of these missions have not yet been built. Most of the well-funded development has come from the military for long duration surveillance missions. But with the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the downsizing of the US military machine, this funding has dried up.

But Miller and co have a suggestion. They say that innovation in this area could be stimulated by setting up a prize for the development of a next-generation airship, just as the X-Prize stimulated interest in reusable rocket flights. The goal, they say, should be to build a maneuverable, stationed-keeping airship that can stay aloft at an altitude of more than 20 km from least 20 hours while carrying a science payload of a least 20 kg.

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Undead Techno Memes Strike Northrop Grumman: Lighter Than Air Freight Shipping

Northrop Grumman is looking at the potential of “really large” unmanned airships for commercial freight transport, Tom Vice, president of the company’s Aerospace Systems segment, said in Washington Aug. 20.

Comparing the effect of such a system on air freight to the advent of the 747 freighter in its day, Vice said that while there is “a lot of work to do” on the concept, the company has looked at promising technologies, and said that the company would continue the work — if it does so — in partnership with a large air freight hauler such as FedEx or UPS.

Another company official said that Northrop Grumman would disclose more details of the concept in the coming weeks.

There are some ideas, memes, which seem to act like a bad cold.  They keep coming back again.  Airships seem on the surface like a great idea.  However, it has been tried.  over and over and over and over and over again. Its always failed.

Since its SFnal: "All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again seems damned appropriate.

If we start seeing Boeing, Lockheed and other aerospace veeps start shuffling and moaning "aiiiiirshiiiips" we'll know we're in trouble.