for a frikkin' BLIMP !!????!!!
Posted on 02/17/2013 10:33:52 AM PST by Nachum
Once seen as the future of surveillance, the Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle has been terminated, InsideDefense.com reports. Is the military airship revival drawing to a close?
UPDATE, 6:30pm Thursday: The Army confirmed that the LEMV airship project has been canceled. Here's the statement an Army spokesman emailed us:
"The Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), a hybrid air vehicle, is a technology demonstration project administered by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command. This project was initially designed to support operational needs in Afghanistan in Spring 2012; it will not provide a capability in the timeframe required. Due to technical and performance challenges, and the limitations imposed by constrained resources, the Army has determined to discontinue the LEMV development effort."
--Dov Schwartz Army Public Affairs
InsideDefense is reporting that the Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), the U.S. Army's hybrid airship and a Popular Science Best Of What's New winner in 2012, has been canceled. The U.S. Army did not immediately return a call for confirmation.
Designed to stay aloft for 21 days and provide continuous surveillance, the LEMV was heavier than expected and could only "stay aloft for about five or six days," despite two years of development and $356 million having been spent on it so far, InsideDefense reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...
Oh the Humanity!!!
for a frikkin' BLIMP !!????!!!
Oh the humanity.
Obama had better not ban flying cars too.
Haven't we had a separate Air Force since 1947?
I think money could be saved and yet spent well if the services weren't always trying to stovepipe missions that really belong to another service.
And to prove I'm not just speaking as a flyboy, the Air Force has several search and rescue boats better left to the Coast Guard or Navy...
Three n’a half million ???
NO
three hundred fifty six million dollars
for a freakin’ blimp
Um, a blimp that was supposed to stay aloft for 21days straight, streaming video surveillance to ground stations. Useful if you have to
watch and target bad guys over a wide area 24/7. Would have been useful if the designers hit their specs adequately and if Barry wasn’t surrendering in the war it was supposed to support. Think of it being a very low orbit positionable satellite and you get the picture.
I want one of these - Johnny wont lend me his, says his dad said no.
I asked the E5 in charge why we didn't just replace the entire thing? After all, any one of several cheap CB radios had more to offer than that! I mean, the CB's were even crystal-controlled, for pete's sake, with more channels and better receive sensitivity and transmitter power. Sure beat tuning those monsters by spreading apart or squeezing together the coils for each channel.
Not possible I was told. Contracts to procure new devices would have to be approved, changes in the aircraft performance envelopes had to be studied, and connector fittings and mechanical adaptors would have to be procured. Not to mention previous contracts to continue purchasing parts for the next twenty years subject to increase if the lifetime of the aircraft was extended would have to be renegotiated, and the disposition of previously purchased parts already in the Supply Chain would have to be taken care of.
Parts such as a replacement resistor for five hundred dollars -this when you could purchase a resistor for about a dollar for a package of twenty-five at Radio Shack.
Maybe this project really did not need to be continued after all, perhaps?
Wait A Minute !!!
Google Earth is FREE !!!
>>Johnny wont lend me his, says his dad said no.<<
Race has the real say over there. He’s a freaking tyrant!
Even our best low earth orbit "spy" satellites pass over a particular spot on earth just a few time per day. They can view the target area for only a minute or so, at best on each pass.
Geosynchronous satellites (weather, sat-tv) are 24,000 miles up and cannot see the detail needed.
This is what is needed.
"Proteus, A High-Altitude, Multi-Mission Aircraft"
"NASA Dryden Fact Sheet - Proteus"
There are no cheap ways to keep this country ahead of its very eager enemies. You may not think that having a dependable long-term loitering observation system standing by overhead is a good idea, but then I would venture a guess that you've never been down on the ground with a rifle waiting and wondering where the enemy was, either.
My comment was tongue n cheek.
And no, I was never in country and never knew why
Enlisted March '65, Signal Corps Radio-Teletype and went to Korea after AIT.
I've drunk a lot of beer with returnees, and that's the best my history can document.
Sheesh, now you have me feeling bad - I deeply appreciate your duty in ‘65: we didn’t have a surplus of young men willing to do their duty back then. I can be a bit pompous sometimes. You can probably guess that I have been in the weapon/capabilities development system for a bit. I am proud of our work but fully aware of our shortcomings. Just galls slightly to catch a whiff of ingratitude for our work - but the only real payoff is when we really do get something worthwhile out to our troops and that brings more of them home in good shape.
FreeRepublic came around too late for me to take advantage of a body and attitude more conducive to actually DOing something about what I see going on around me.
Don't feel bad ... except, I don't drink anymore and can't even bend an elbow with you.
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