http://rt.com/usa/215403-army-surveillance-blimp-test/
The US Army is set to begin testing its blimp-like surveillance
airships, designed to help the military detect and destroy cruise
missiles from attacking the nation’s capital and other East Coast
cities.
The blimps at the center of the tests in Maryland are unmanned,
80-yard long, helium-filled aircraft that can float up to 10,000
feet in the air. At that height – a third of the cruising
altitude for commercial airliners – they will patrol the skies
above major East Coast cities for three years.
During the testing, one aircraft – also called an aerostat – will
scan in an area from New York to North Carolina’s Outer Banks,
and as far west as central Ohio. The other blimp will carry radar
to help the military on the ground pinpoint targets.
The
system is called JLENS, short for Joint Land Attack Cruise
Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System. The radar is used
to spot missiles or “swarming boats” filled with explosives from
as far away as 340 miles. The army said the blimps won’t carry
weapons, as enemy missiles would be destroyed by air-, ground- or
ship-based weapons.
"
We can defeat cruise missiles but we
have limited capability to detect. And so, with an elevated
sensor, such as JLENS, and the ability to look out over the
horizon, now we have the ability to detect and to enable our
systems to defeat cruise missiles,
" Maj. Gen. Glen Bramhall, commander
of the 263rd Army Air and Missile Defense, told The Associated
Press.