U.S. Army Orders Huge Airship to Aid Combat Missions

[MorningSong]

From http://www.space.com/businesstechnol...ns-100616.html

The United States Army has ordered a huge hybrid airship longer than a football field to watch over battlefields in Afghanistan by the end of 2011, according to the airship's builder Northrop Grumman Corporation.

The company has received a $517 million Army contract to build up to three of the huge military airships, called the Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicles (LEMV). Such airships would serve as surveillance stations at 20,000 feet (6,096 meters) above sea level and could stay on watch for as long as three weeks at a time.

A LEMV would also have the capability to carry a 2,500-pound (1,113 kg) payload, and still zip along at 92 mph (148 kph) if necessary. The 302-foot (92-meter) airship would typically have a cruising speed of just 34 mph (54.7 kph).

That represents a staying power for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance over a longer period of time than what today's robotic drones such as the Predator or Reaper can provide. [7 sci-fi weapons today.]

"Our offering supports the Army's Joint Military Utility Assessment that this disruptive innovation must meet the Army's objective of a persistent unblinking stare while providing increased operational utility to battlefield commanders," said Alan Metzger, Northrop Grumman LEMV program manager.

A heavy-lift configuration could transform the LEMV into a sky transport that carries up to 15,000 pounds (6,803 kg).

The U.S. Army has also conducted military airship field trials for a tethered balloon that would carry radar to help weapon systems track and shoot down cruise missiles.

Unlike blimps or lighter-than-air vehicles, hybrid airships such as the LEMV are heavier-than-air and require both vertical thrusters and forward movement to stay aloft. But their incorporation of lighter-than-air gas for buoyancy allows them to stay up in the air for much longer than traditional aircraft or drones.

To get the U.S. Army airship flying, Northrop Grumman has teamed up with Hybrid Air Vehicles, Ltd. of the UK, which has a hybrid airship platform called HAV304. It also plans to work with Warwick Mills, ILC Dover, AAI Corporation, SAIC, and other companies from 18 U.S. states to build LEMV

Northrop Grumman hopes that the LEMV could eventually also provide for homeland defense as well as military surveillance over distant battlefields. But the airship would first have to undergo tests and demonstrations in Afghanistan after the 18-month target deadline.

Civilian airships have also witnessed resurgence in popularity. E-Green Technologies' Bullet 580 recently became the current world's largest airship by inflating to its full length rivaling a 23-floor building

[MorningSong]

Since noone has commented on this post yet, I guess I might as well explain why I found it interesting.

1. What battlefields are they expecting to see in Afghanistan after the end of 2011? It must undergo tests in Afghanistan after the 18 months target deadline? Weren't they supposed to start pulling back troups way before then?

2. Three ships...that can carry about 1000 people (judging by the weight-carrying capacity mentioned) at 20,000 feet...for up to 3 weeks...that could be used for sky transport. Could they be get-away ships for the elite?

3. Disruptive innovation? What does that mean?

4. Verticle thrusters and foreward movement.... UFO sitings, anyone?

5. The Bullet 500 rivals a 23-floor building when fully inflated? Now that is some big whopper! Would certainly seem like an alien invasion to me if I were to come across one not knowing they existed!

[bluestflame]

disruptive innovations sounds like disruptive soundwaves to interfere with a persons abiity to think

[Lost Soul]

Obviously they're not anticipating opposition. Luftschiff los!

[Bomack]

Hello MorningSong. Thanks for the article. It got me interested so I did some quick research.

Posted by MorningSong (here)
1. What battlefields are they expecting to see in Afghanistan after the end of 2011? It must undergo tests in Afghanistan after the 18 months target deadline? Weren't they supposed to start pulling back troups way before then?

The original justification for the invasion of Afghanistan was the search for Osama bin Laden, who (IMO) was made the scapegoat for 9-11. This was a great way to install our military presence into the region, and since (IMO) bin Laden either doesn't exist or is already dead (with today's tech. we still can't find him? Right!) we will remain there until TPTB decide that they've found him. In the mean-time this makes for great testing grounds for new technologies!

Posted by MorningSong (here)
3. Disruptive innovation? What does that mean?

Disruptive Innovation: (From Google Search) 'Disruptive technology and disruptive innovation are terms used in business and technology literature to describe innovations that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect, typically by being lower priced or designed for a different set of consumers.' http://tinyurl.com/28hxmcn

And I found this interesting:

Persistent Unblinking Stare: DARPA-BAA-09-55: Persistent Stare Exploitation and Analysis System (PerSEAS) is a software systems development and demonstration program for automatically and interactively discovering actionable intelligence from airborne, wide area motion imagery (WAMI) of complex urban environments. Used in a forensic mode, the system will exploit hours and days of WAMI data to identify threat activities and the underlying threat indicators. Used in a near real time mode, the system will alert the user to developing threat activities in-time to interdict. http://tinyurl.com/28b7lhz (What, they don't call it Looking Glass anymore? The Mil. loves their acronyms! LOL!) Disclaimer: Just Kidding!

Posted by MorningSong (here)
2. Three ships...that can carry about 1000 people (judging by the weight-carrying capacity mentioned) at 20,000 feet...for up to 3 weeks...that could be used for sky transport. Could they be get-away ships for the elite?

4. Verticle thrusters and foreward movement.... UFO sitings, anyone?

5. The Bullet 500 rivals a 23-floor building when fully inflated? Now that is some big whopper! Would certainly seem like an alien invasion to me if I were to come across one not knowing they existed!

Hmmm . . . Could be. The sheer size of these ships would seem to make them unfeasable for use in a combat environment. But they said they were testing these, so it could be that they are testing the ship's survivability under war-time conditions? The last thing they'd want is to lose a boat load of elites, right?

Also keep in mind that any article like this is Disinfo. It's going to have elements of truth, half-truths, and non-truths in it designed for public consumption.

Here is a picture of the ship:




Bob