A Giant Military Surveillance Blimp Is Going to Constantly Monitor the East Coast
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By the end of the year, there will likely be two giant Army blimps hovering 10,000 feet above Baltimore with the ability to see 340 miles in any direction.
Most forms of surveillance have weaknesses: If they’re ground-based, they have range limitations. Predator drones have to refuel and don’t have the ability to hover in one spot. Helicopters are really loud and generally have to fly pretty low. That’s where JLENS comes in. It’s a giant, 243-foot long blimp that’s tethered to the ground. It has ridiculously powerful radar and cameras. It pretty much doesn’t have to move, and it only has to land once a month or so for quick maintenance.
Yes, that means the entire mid-Atlantic region will, at least, have the potential to be under “persistent surveillance,” a dream term for those in the intelligence biz and a worst-case scenario for those who care a lick about privacy. One aerostat that was tested in Utah last year was able to follow individual vehicles “dozens of miles away” and watch a test subject plant a fake bomb on the side of the road. According to the Washington Post, the Army has “no current plans” to use that high-powered video sensor in Maryland, but wouldn’t rule out using it in the future.
Rumors of the Army buying a JLENS from Raytheon to put in Aberdeen, Maryland, have been swirling for a couple years now—earlier this year, Timothy Carey, then-Vice President for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance with Raytheon told me that “it depends on the day of the week” as to whether the Army wanted to go ahead and purchase one. Well, it seems they’ve made up their mind. They’re reportedly buying two blimps at a cost of roughly $2.7 billion—one will use a long-range radar and the other will use a higher-frequency radar to help target threats.
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/a-giant-military-surveillance-blimp-is-going-to-constantly-monitor-the-east-coast
I'm torn between my love for dirigibles and my love for dirigibles. Sorry.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Surely, just testing them for use over North Korea.
( Come back to us, Hannah Bell. We miss you. 
)
Sid
what a beautiful idyllic setting. How much I envy you.
This is the kind of picture you see on calendars and such.
Sure ... no problem.
Anyone want to start a raffle on how soon an airliner will hit it?
After all we are "Still at War" with "Terrorism." The more surveillance the safer we will all feel! Maybe they could paint pretty colors on it..too.
completely oblivious, it's obvious that there's a lotta surveillance happening.
There are cameras all along the roads. They aren't just looking at traffic patterns. I wouldn't be surprised if there's more going on that we can't see, as well.
Once you get in range of the seat of government and the vacation location of the POTUS at Naval Support Facility Thurmont (aka "Camp David"
it is only logical to anticipate that there will be more of this sort of thing.
I'm more worried about gun freak dropping his loaded gun on the floor of the grocery store or start shooting cuz the checker didn't give him the correct change than I am a fucking roadside bomb.
What a lovely little way to siphon the treasury to the 1% to put in place a security apparatus to control us. 
if not breath-taking, heights. 
