US Army tests Super-blimp

[FaxModem1]

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/1 ... ?hpt=hp_c2

Army's all-seeing, super blimp makes debut flight

By Alicia Tarancon

CNN

The U.S. Army has launched the debut flight of its massive Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), a souped-up blimp designed to fly continuously for 21 days and provide full surveillance of an area.

The LEMV was launched Tuesday from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. The test flight lasted about 90 minutes.

The all-seeing airship is longer than football field and taller than a seven-story building, according to maker Northrop Grumman. Its shape separates the 21st-century "hybrid air vehicle," as Northrop Grumman calls it, from the blimps that have flown over sporting events for decades.

The LEMV is aerodynamic, with a shape closer to an airfoil than an elongated football like classic blimps. So while old-school blimps stay aloft because of the helium inside, the LEMV uses the helium and its shape to achieve lift.

Northrop Grumman has a $517 million contract to build three airships for the Army.

The first test flight included two pilots, but in the future, the Army hopes to have unmanned flights.

"I think the Army sees this as truly an exciting breakthrough," said Dave Nagy, vice president of business development for military aircraft systems at Northrop Grumman.

He says the Army will benefit from the LEMV because just a handful of these airships will be able to do what no other monitoring system can do. They can stay up in the air for long periods of time and can cover a significant area of ground. And the LEMV will not only be able to scan the ground for insurgents, but it may also have other uses, like hauling supplies and precious cargo to troops.

At a time when the military is looking for more cost-effective options for intelligence and surveillance gathering in places like Afghanistan, fueling the blimp will cost approximately $11,000 for a 21-day period of service.

Coincidentally, the debut flight took the LEMV right over the site of the fiery Hindenburg disaster on May 6, 1937. Nagy says the location, however, was deliberate.

"It's one of few locations that has hangar infrastructure for this size of vehicle," he said.

For now, Northrop Grumman will continue to test the LEMV from Lakehurst, New Jersey, where the company will continue to "expand the flight envelope," Nagy says. He said this technology will allow the military to be more flexible in the future.

This is really cool, I want one, and I hope that these become commercial someday.

[Crazedwraith]

Hell, did we just turn the clock back a hundred years or something? So blimps are actually useful.

Is this not going to be rather vulnerable to.. .umm... being blown out of the sky?

[Grumman]

Is this not going to be rather vulnerable to.. .umm... being blown out of the sky?

Anyone with an air force or proper SAMs could do it, but it's going to be out of range of all the gun-based and man-portable weapons I'm familiar with.

[Sea Skimmer]

Its meant to be a cheap to fly replacement for Predators and MC-12s, which also mostly happen to be owned by the enemy (USAF), not much of a front line hot war asset. If hot war occurs it would perform secondary/rear area missions like air base security vs. Communist Chinese special forces attack, maritime surveillance, acting as a communications relay and picket duty against cruise missile attacks. Also to a certain point the army would expect to blow up all the hostile SAM sites with its own guided missiles. Its best selling points at the moment are how badly the Global Hawk program is doing, and the cancellation of the JLENS radar aerosat which was supposed to handle the cruise missile role. Ceiling is given as 'over 22,000ft' no doubt depending on the exact payload, so some chance would exist that SA-24 MANPADS fired from a mountain in Afghanistan would be able to hit it, but probably not any other MANPADS nor any such weapon from sea level. Got to look out for ultra technical with a 57mm anti aircraft gun though.

In any event, good thing it flew and landed in a non crashing fashion, since most (all? I'd have to check) of the competing ISR airships have been cancelled. For some strange reason the US congress didn't like the idea of funding multiple redundant open ended 'do all missions' airship projects.

[UnderAGreySky]

What's wrong with the Global Hawk program? I wasn't aware there were any issues with it (though I must confess not having followed up much on it).

[Sea Skimmer]

It keeps breaking/crashing, costs exploded several times and all further production and operation of the multirole Block 30 has been canceled earlier this year so only a few radar equipped block 40 will now be produced, as well as operating some of the older more limited models. The U-2 life has now been greatly extended and all talk of replace it with Global Hawk has ceased. Work is still going ahead for the navy variant, but I would by no means consider that a safe project either should anything else go wrong.

[Vendetta]

It keeps breaking/crashing, costs exploded several times and all further production and operation of the multirole Block 30 has been canceled earlier this year so only a few radar equipped block 40 will now be produced, as well as operating some of the older more limited models.

Did they eventually get to cancel it? I heard that USAF wanted to cancel the Block 30 because it turned out it it was more expensive to operate than the U-2 and wasn't as good, but HSAC wanted to keep the budget in for the Block 30 whether the air force wanted it or not (because, y'know, national security relies on Northrop's bottom line, after all).

[Hawkwings]

Looks... very similar to the Lockheed Martin version. Of course, that one is on ice and waiting for a customer, whereas Northrop found the Army I guess.

Yeah, you can shoot these things with guns and missiles, but it's not like they will go "pop" and drop to the ground. The air pressure differential is so low that leaks are very slow, and likely it'll just mean that a 21-day mission will be cut to say a 7-day mission, before returning for repairs. The Goodyear blimp comes back from every flight with new holes, many of which don't even get noticed until weeks later.

[Sea Skimmer]

The aerosats we had/have in Iraqistan would get shot full of holes by snipers on the ground, and just have to be hauled down from time to time for patching. This airship actually has a skin made mostly from kevlar, and the army expects it will actually repel some level of small arms. Actual anti aircraft guns and missiles though are going to stand a high chance of wrecking it. Missiles in particular are going to be trying to blow off the engines, and jet fuel burns even if helium does not.

Did they eventually get to cancel it? I heard that USAF wanted to cancel the Block 30 because it turned out it it was more expensive to operate than the U-2 and wasn't as good, but HSAC wanted to keep the budget in for the Block 30 whether the air force wanted it or not (because, y'know, national security relies on Northrop's bottom line, after all).

Production is dead, nobody really even tried to stop that. The latest senate armed service committee version did restore funding to fly the ones that were already produced, as well as the C-27 Spartan and F-16/A-10 cuts all the house committee wanted, but about zero chance exists of passing an actual FY2013 defense budget prior to the election and sequestration. So all bills remain fluffy. What's most likely going to happen is last year's budget is extended again, which would keep those programs alive, but just kick the topic down the road. Since operating block 30 adds into the billions quickly its pretty likely to show back up on the chopping block if Obama is reelected. Its certain if sequestration goes ahead, though that would also kill the F-35 and few other things people care a lot more about. Importantly though, while attempts are being made to restore operating funds to the block 30, this still basically neuters it as a U-2 and other platform replacement because to do that job it needed a large number of other sensors designed. Its baseline systems are just that, baseline. The funding and R&D work to do this were tied up with the planned future production in large part, and the appeal of spending the money for a production limited platform isn't going to exist.

[Col. Crackpot]

Hell, did we just turn the clock back a hundred years or something? So blimps are actually useful.

Is this not going to be rather vulnerable to.. .umm... being blown out of the sky?

Clearly this was designed to fight the coming war with the Draka.