US Air Force Enlists Super Blimp For Blue Devil Surveillance

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US Air Force enlists super blimp for Blue Devil surveillance Jan 20, 2011
Blimp -A blimp, or non-rigid airship, is an airship without an internal supporting framework or keel...Rather, these aircraft rely on both a higher pressure of the lifting gas (usually helium) inside the envelope and the strength of the envelope itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blimp



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Way back in September 2009, we reported on an omnipotent war blimp from Lockheed Martin, now it looks like a similar dirigible could be hovering 20,000 feet above Afghanistan by this fall. (It's not clear whether or not the two blimps are one in the same, but Lockheed's craft was slated for an Afghan debut in 2011.) As part of the $211 million Blue Devil initiative, the US Air Force plans to pack the bloated beast -- which sports seven times the carrying capacity of the Goodyear blimp -- with up to a dozen interchangeable sensors and a supercomputer for processing data. It will then hover for stints as long as a week, collecting, assessing, and relaying important surveillance data to ground troops in a matter of seconds. It's a tall order, but Air Force officials hope that an on-board wide-area airborne surveillance system (WAAS), which uses 96 cameras to generate nearly 275TB of data every hour, and a supercomputer hosting the equivalent of 2,000 single-core servers will fit the bill. The aircraft isn't complete quite yet, but barring unforeseen obstacles, like a run-in with a giant needle, it should be up in the air starting October 15th. For more on Blue Devil check out our links below.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/20/us-a ... lance-ini/


Are they serious about this ? The thing is filled with air, I mean how easy its going to be to bring this thing down , U could do it with a pea shooter :lol:

zubber
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Re: US Air Force Enlists Super Blimp For Blue Devil Surveill Jan 21, 2011
I don't think the Taliban have anything that can reach 22,000 feet except maybe a few left over stingers from the Russian war and thats a heat seeker and I don't think that blimp produces a very big signature for the stinger to lock on.

Most probally a paniced US pilot will down it, when he see's a huge blip on his radar craps his pants and fires off a few sidewinders AIM-9's. Like the wikileaks video when the Apache gunners obliterates a bunch of men for thinking they have a soulder launced RPG which turned out to be a camera.

WTF, I see a squadron of Taly-Ban fighters comming in at 3 oclock on the radar. I'll let them have it. Fox 1.

Ground control to thunderhorse, dude you just shot down our blimp !

Oops !
desertdudeshj
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Re: US Air Force Enlists Super Blimp For Blue Devil Surveill Jan 21, 2011
The thing that I am concerned about is a blimp in no way can protect itself from any kind of attack , neither is it fast enough , nor does it have those things that neutralize missiles and stuff,

Somebody might just bring it down and then frame it on the afghans, and then justify bombing the hell out of that area
zubber
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Re: US Air Force Enlists Super Blimp For Blue Devil Surveill Jan 21, 2011
Again, the Taliban do not have any airpower, NATO has complete control of airspace over A'stan. Plus just in case there are plenty of suppourt aircarft within reach if ever there was a threat.

And also again at 22,000 feet it is well away from reach anything the Taliban could fire or throw at it. And what thing your are talking about that neutralises missles and stuff ? Chaffs and flares ?
desertdudeshj
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Re: US Air Force Enlists Super Blimp For Blue Devil Surveill Jan 21, 2011
OK thanks for informing me about the restricted aerospace, I was inferring that say for example , some area there in A'stan doesnt have enough troops or perhaps needs to be obliterated for whatever reason ,

The blimp would be hovering in that area, Then the us allies, would bring it down in some manner, and then they would claim that miraculously in some way the talibans did it, and then bombing that area would be justified. thats what I was referring to.

Yes Chaffs and Flares, I assumed those are only used by fighters, so i was unware about what is its equivalent for a blimp
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Re: US Air Force Enlists Super Blimp For Blue Devil Surveill Jan 21, 2011
You'd think when they already have the entire country by the danglys they would go through such an elaborate scheme ? It would make some sense if they were looking to invade a new country or start a new war.

Currently they need no excuse to bomb A'stan. Just make an obsucre statement that there are some Taliban hiding and then carpet bomb the area.

The blimp makes perfect military sense in the long run for its intended purpose.
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