This is not a ship

Not so much a blimp, more like a bloat.

"half-billion-dollar deal"

No expense to great to find Osama. But I hope they remove the "US Army" logo before deployment.

Is it just me?

Or if they paint it dark pink it would look like the female genitalia????

Tinny Overlords

Compare the Lockheed with this http://www.daleklinks.co.uk/gallery/daryl-joyce/daleks-flying-saucer

I'm just saying...

I thought the U.S. military was segmented.

How come the U.S. Army is flying this thing? Granted they have helicopters, which have a reasonably low ceiling, but this balloon certainly is in the U.S.A.F.'s domain given it's much higher ceiling.

Next we'll be hearing the U.S.A.F. has ordered it's very own version, followed by the Marines who always want special versions of things military.

No wonder the U.S.A. is bankrupt.

Just some stuff to consider....

First no one's talked about the cross sectional view on radar. (How stealthy the craft?)

Ceiling? Usually that's classified, so I question the 30K ceiling request.

As to having to counter the fact that the craft gets lighter as they burn off fuel...

I wonder why they can't pull water vapor and condense it and store it in to ballast tanks?

Trivial to do.

(Especially if you're using some solar collectors to generate electricity.)

The other thing people have to realize is size... not easy to spot from the ground.

If the ground enemy had radar, they'd be easier to pinpoint... ;-)

But with respect to the original airship... Maybe they should consider using it to help fight forest fires?

A gunners dream

Perfect for target practice, a big fat slow moving target!

Alternate Power Source

Something that big should be able to catch a lot of solar power to keep the daytime fuel comsumption to a minimum

but what was the alien message at the begining ???

or didn't anyone recognise the hand signals (ala close encounters style)

this is not a airship, its our alien overlords personal shuttle....

CEOTTK

Anyone else notice the Close Encounters hand gestures near the beginning of the promo vid.??

That and the alarming resemblance to the Dalek ship from "Daleks Invasion of Earth 2150"

I welcome our new metal clad rulers and offer a chair lift and anti rust paint in honour of their arrival.

I still think...

they could make the Taliban laugh themselves to death by painting that airship to look like a very stretched pair Levis.

"Hey, Achmed, should we shoot at that aaahh! it looks like a giant floating arse! bwwaaahahahahahhahaa,eerk!" *kerthunk*

See? It works every time.

Waiter! My drink is empty!

<thinking cap on>

With the ability to carry quite heavy loads and good fuel efficiency, why not convert some of these for passenger / cargo use? Probably not the best example but they would be really useful for the booze dash across the channel :)

This is a patrol craft

This thing is designed for patrol use. There are a lot of UAVs in the sky already, and they aren't crashing into mountains very often, or being lost to enemy fire. And the use case, is patrol, not an active war zone. So, it will be searching for hostiles, who are trying to go unnoticed.

Yes, at 3000 metres, some large caliber weapons could hit it. But also, bullet source detectors would instantly pin point the direction of the fire. Enemy forces would be smart enough to not fire at it, because it would reveal their position. They wouldn't be able to destroy a P-791 and leave the area, before it located the source of fire, and transmitted the location, and a Reaper is diverted to the area. And the Reaper would only have to get within 8km before it could start firing back.

Radar cross sections don't matter either. Hostile forces in Afghanistan aren't lugging around radar sets. When they are attacked from the air, it is usually a Hellfire missile from below the horizon, or behind a mountain, directed by a laser designator on a UAV, or a US military ground patrol nearby. I bet the P-971 will be loaded with target designators.

I think there just be might UAV overload at some point. They can UAVs cover every sq km, but who is going to monitor and sign off on targets? Yes, a UAV that can stay in the air for a week, cuts down on ground crew, but you still need a 24x7 team watching the feeds.

lack of understanding of the likely employment

The yanks have already used balloons in Iraq/Afghanistan. They were/are tethered above bases with sensor rigs as a force protection measure; spotting mortar firing points and suchlike. This looks like an enhancement of that idea, and I seriously doubt the intention is to fly them around the battlespace.

Grenade, 'coz it's dead warry innit?