US Army's controversial 'all seeing' surveillance blimps get go-ahead to guard against cruise missiles - and can spot objects as small as a person 340 MILES away
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The US Army has launched the first of two controversial 'all seeing' blimps designed to help the military detect and destroy cruise missiles or rogue aircraft incursions targeting America's East Coast cities.
The first radar-toting vehicle is airborne as part of a three-year test of the latest defense system at an Army facility near Baltimore, Maryland.
When fully deployed next February, the $2.8billion system will feature two, unmanned, helium-filled aerostats - able to scan the oceans and coastline in a 340-mile radius.
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The 'JLENS' blimp, built by Raytheon, which can spot objects 340 miles away using highly sensitive radio systems. The US Army has begun testing the craft over Maryland, sparking privacy fears.
One balloon will continuously scan in a circle from upstate New York to North Carolina's Outer Banks, and as far west as central Ohio.
The other will carry precision radar to help the military on the ground to pinpoint targets.
The system is called JLENS - short for Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System.
'JLENS is strategically emplaced to help defend Washington D.C. and a Texas-sized portion of the East Coast from cruise missiles, drones and hostile aircraft,' said Dave Gulla, vice president of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems' Global Integrated Sensors business.
'JLENS can detect potential threats at extremely long ranges, giving North American Aerospace Defense Command more time to make decisions and more space to react appropriately.'
As part of the deployment, Raytheon engineers raised one of the football-field sized aerostats thousands of feet in the air and conducted a series of tests to ensure it was operating as designed.
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The company will continue to test and integrate the radar for several more days, then turn the first JLENS balloon over to Soldiers of the U.S. Army's A Battery, 3rd Air Defense Artillery.
The second aerostat is scheduled to go aloft in early 2015.
Following a series of additional tests, it will also be turned over to the Soldiers, who will conduct an operational exercise with JLENS.
Testing: A giant radar dome is seen on the bottom of the unmanned aerostat, which will be launched next week
The project, built by Raytheon Co. of Waltham, Massachusetts, and TCOM L.P. of Columbia, Maryland, has cost the government about $2.8 billion so far.
And last week Congress approved another $43.3 million for the first year of the test.
Despite the staggering cost, supporters of the project say JLENS will save money in the long run by reducing the need for surveillance by conventional aircraft.
'The analysis we've done says it's about five to seven times less than operating a fleet of aircraft to cover the same area over the same time period,' said Douglas Burgess, Raytheon's JLENS program director.
Plan: When fully deployed next spring, the system will feature two, unmanned, helium-filled aerostats, tethered to concrete pads 4 miles apart
The white balloons, each 80 yards long, are part of a new wave of lighter-than-air surveillance equipment.
They will not carry weapons as enemy missiles would be destroyed by air, ground or ship-based weapons.
Major General Glen Bramhall, commander of the 263rd Army Air and Missile Defense, said: '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.'
The government has also deployed tethered airships near the Mexican border, in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the Caribbean Ocean to combat drug smuggling.
The airships at Aberdeen, Maryland, will be the first of their type near a major East Coast city, visible from Interstate 95.
The military has insisted that the balloons will not carry cameras in response to privacy campaigners' concerns about snooping.
But David Rocah, of the American Civil Liberties Union in Maryland, said the group was leery of the airships' ability to constantly monitor moving objects, including cars on the ground.
Mr Bramhall says the radar is unable to identify individuals or record cellphone conversations.
'The mission is not to spy on U.S. citizens. It is not designed for that,' he said.
The Maryland system can detect missiles from Boston to North Carolina on the coast and as far inland as Lake Erie, according to the .
Raytheon, which makes the craft, advertises them as useful for 24/7 surveillance.
Old-fashioned: Blimps have been around for decades, but they only recently came back into usage by the U.S. Army
'What if there was an affordable way the U.S. and its allies could always 'see' the threat, instead of having to hope they had a ship or airplane in the vicinity to detect the threat?,' it says on its website.
'JLENS, an affordable elevated, persistent over-the-horizon sensor system uses a powerful integrated radar system to detect, track and target a variety of threats,' Raytheon says.
Aerostats, as they are now called, are already used to protect American bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are outfitted with cameras and used to track insurgent and U.S. troop movements.
The dirigibles famously snared Army Staff Seargent Robert Bates slaughtering 16 civilians in Kandahar in March 2012.
The two blimps work together to identify threats such as missiles entering the nearby area.
Video showed Mr Bates returning to the base under what he thought was the cloak of early morning darkness.
The footage showed him carrying the rifle used to carry out the mass murder.
Raytheon's blimps can 'see' for 340 miles (547km). They are moored to base stations and are designed to look for cruise missiles. Other uses for the Raytheon and Drone Aviation Corp blimps include helping during search and rescue missions, and coordinating people during an evacuation
The blimps are also used at the U.S. – Mexico border to try to catch illegal immigrants, CBS News noted.
The army has commissioned defense contractor Ratheon to provide the airships, which will hover at an altitude of about 10,000 feet over the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground, for the multi-year trial run.
Only missiles: The Pentagon insists the aerostats will only be used to search for missiles, but they are already used overseas to monitor insurgent movements
Will Big Brother be watching: The ACLU is also concerned the airships will be used to watch people on the ground
Privacy advocates worry the blimps will also be equipped with high-resolution cameras and radar to track the movements of civilians.
'Right now there are no rules,' Christopher Calabrese, of the American Civil Liberties Union, told CBS News. 'There's nothing that bars us from having high-powered cameras monitoring our every public movement.'
Another ACLU analyst echoed those thoughts to the Post.
'That's the kind of massive persistent surveillance we've always been concerned about with drones,' said Jay Stanley. 'It's part of this trend we've seen since 9/11, which is the turning inward of all these surveillance technologies.'
HIghly visible: People as far away as Baltimore will be able to see the blimps high above them
The Army insisted in a letter to the paper that the aerostats, which can fly for as long as 30 consecutive days, will be the first line of defense against incoming missiles.
'The primary mission... is to track airborne objects. Its secondary mission is to track surface moving objects such as vehicles or boats. The capability to track surface objects does not extend to individual people.'
The government also said that there are currently no plans to put cameras capable of tracking people on the blimps, but it could not rule out doing so in the future.
As it is currently constructed, the program is expected to cost $2.7billion.
Civilians as far away as Baltimore will be able to see them from the ground.
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