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back to article Blimp radar makes first flight

A new US military radar system, suspended beneath a tethered "aerostat" balloon so as to see beyond the horizon, made its first flight yesterday. The JLENS blimp-scanner is intended to finger such things as enemy cruise missiles or unmanned aircraft. The US military - particularly the Army, as opposed to the Air Force …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    So...

    Not a front-line piece of kit then?

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  2. Rob
    Coat

    What?!?

    'Organic radar' - is made from vegetables or something?

    That one there hanging on the missile rack.

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  3. Mark Monaghan
    Coat

    Countermeasures?

    Time to dust down that old Sopwith Camel and get out the Very pistol then

    It's the flying jacket with the goggles in the pocket

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  4. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Only a minor problem to battle against

    "The balloons are intended to have a ceiling of almost 15,000 feet and be able to stay up and operational for as long as 30 days."

    And the weather is always so fine and obliging up there?

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Welcome

    Weather

    you'd have thought they'd have gone a bit higher.. possibly a lot higher! maybe even U2 Altitudes.. perhaps even tetherless solar powered balloons.. But I guess thats next..

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  6. Stevie

    Bah!

    Time to dust off the old "Ace of Aces" ballon-busting -s-i-m- game too, though 15000 feet is pushing it in a camel, Biggles old chap.

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  7. disgruntled yank

    blast from the past

    (maybe not, since no helium). The USAF used to keep manned radar blimps out over the Atlantic in the days before the DEW line went in.

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  8. Andy Baird

    Old system, old news

    This appears similar or identical to the TARS (Tethered Aerostat Radar System) that has been in use along the southern US border since 1981, primarily for drug traffic interdiction:

    http://fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/airdef/tars.htm

    To answer the question about weather, TARS uptime averages about 65%--two days out of three. Winds are a problem, obviously.

    Although there's an FAA-declared "no-fly" zone around each aerostat, clearly marked on the charts, there have been a couple of incidents over the years of idiots in light aircraft (Cessnas and what have you) flying into the cables. No balloons were lost--those are STRONG cables!--but the aircraft and occupants didn't survive.

    Andy Baird

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Tamil Tigers?

    ...thought that lot got wiped away earlier this year. surely the biggest threat is a little further north in the disputed Kashmir region?

    I can image every city in the fatherland^W land of the free being protected by these menacing guardian angels... it wouldnt take much for them to launch own attacks onto their own cities

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  10. John Blagden
    Black Helicopters

    @AC

    "I can image every city in the fatherland^W land of the free being protected by these menacing guardian angels... it wouldnt take much for them to launch own attacks onto their own cities".

    This thing flies at 'less' than 300mph, so an F16 would have to slow down even more..............

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  11. elderlybloke
    Big Brother

    Tethered Balloon

    This is a Barrage Balloon with its cable ready to slice the wing off some unfortunate aircraft flying along and not doing anything illegal .

    Or is it illegal to interfere with the security of the USA?

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