Mosquito Drone

[Unkotare]

Where might this lead?


US military surveillance future: Drones now come in swarms? — RT

 

[waltky]

Would be a good way to watch our southern border too...

Army's all-seeing, super blimp makes debut flight
The U.S. Army has launched the debut flight of its massive Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), a souped-up blimp designed to fly continuously for 21 days and provide full surveillance of an area.

The LEMV was launched Tuesday from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. The test flight lasted about 90 minutes. The all-seeing airship is longer than football field and taller than a seven-story building, according to maker Northrop Grumman. Its shape separates the 21st-century "hybrid air vehicle," as Northrop Grumman calls it, from the blimps that have flown over sporting events for decades. The LEMV is aerodynamic, with a shape closer to an airfoil than an elongated football like classic blimps. So while old-school blimps stay aloft because of the helium inside, the LEMV uses the helium and its shape to achieve lift.

Northrop Grumman has a $517 million contract to build three airships for the Army. The first test flight included two pilots, but in the future, the Army hopes to have unmanned flights. "I think the Army sees this as truly an exciting breakthrough," said Dave Nagy, vice president of business development for military aircraft systems at Northrop Grumman.

He says the Army will benefit from the LEMV because just a handful of these airships will be able to do what no other monitoring system can do. They can stay up in the air for long periods of time and can cover a significant area of ground. And the LEMV will not only be able to scan the ground for insurgents, but it may also have other uses, like hauling supplies and precious cargo to troops. At a time when the military is looking for more cost-effective options for intelligence and surveillance gathering in places like Afghanistan, fueling the blimp will cost approximately $11,000 for a 21-day period of service.

Coincidentally, the debut flight took the LEMV right over the site of the fiery Hindenburg disaster on May 6, 1937. Nagy says the location, however, was deliberate. "It's one of few locations that has hangar infrastructure for this size of vehicle," he said. For now, Northrop Grumman will continue to test the LEMV from Lakehurst, New Jersey, where the company will continue to "expand the flight envelope," Nagy says. He said this technology will allow the military to be more flexible in the future.

Source

 

[uscitizen]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xno5qM-Szdo]Raid Commercial (1956) - YouTube[/ame]

 

[waltky]

Good idea - now if dey can mount some machine guns on `em, dat'll be even better...

From Battlefield to the Border
August 13, 2012, Blimps Used in Afghanistan Tested to Monitor Aliens, Drug Runners From Mexico

The U.S. military is joining with border-patrol officials in a new initiative that could bring dozens of surveillance blimps from the battlefields of Afghanistan to America's border with Mexico. Over the next few weeks, the military will oversee a test in south Texas to determine if a 72-foot-long, unmanned surveillance blimp—sometimes called "the floating eye" when used to spot insurgents in Afghanistan—can help find drug runners and people trying to cross illegally into the U.S. The project is part of a broader attempt by U.S. officials to establish a high-tech surveillance network along the border and find alternative uses for expensive military hardware that will be coming back from Afghanistan, along with the troops.

In addition to the blimps, border officials are exploring more than 100 other types of military gear, from hand-held instant-translation devices that could be used at crossings to sensors that can monitor up to a 10-mile diameter area for days at a time. The Department of Homeland Security is taking a careful approach, wary of costly mistakes in past government attempts to set up electronic border surveillance. Last year, the department pulled the plug on a billion-dollar initiative, known as SBInet, after concluding that the troubled "electronic fence" involving cameras, radar and other devices would be unable to provide the unified border-monitoring system once envisioned. "This kind of technology can be very alluring," said Mark Borkowski, assistant commissioner at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Technology Innovation and Acquisition. "In the past, we've said: 'That's kind of cool. Let's go out and buy it.' That can turn out to be a less than bright thing to do."

The U.S. military is offering the surveillance drones to border officials free of charge, said Mr. Borkowski. If the tests are successful, the military could provide Homeland Security with dozens of blimps and other surplus gear worth $27 million—a significant chunk of Mr. Borkowski's annual equipment budget of $100 million to $130 million. For years, specialized, helium-filled blimps have floated above Kabul and scores of U.S. military bases across Afghanistan and Iraq. Equipped with sophisticated cameras, infrared sensors and other detection equipment, the small blimps often float 2,000 feet over an area to keep a round-the-clock watch. They have been used to monitor militants planning attacks, insurgents planting roadside bombs and troops in battle. The blimps, which can be a quarter of the size of the 192-foot-long Goodyear blimp, have become an increasingly valuable tool for soldiers, who are able to monitor the information from the nearby bases.

Now that the American bases in Afghanistan are being shut down, the blimps—which can cost $1 million to $5 million each—will be part of the massive flow of equipment leaving that country over the next two years. U.S. border officials already make use of other battlefield equipment, including unarmed Predator drones and another type of blimp that keeps watch for airplanes. The new blimps would be mobile platforms meant to keep watch on what is happening on the ground. In south Texas, the military and border officials are trying out a 72-foot-long blimp made by TCOM LP of Columbia, Md. The blimp, which includes a battlefield sensor, is tethered to the ground by a cable that provides a communications link. Later this month, the test will expand to include another blimp equipped with different sensors. This spring, border officials conducted a test in Arizona of a yet another blimp that was fitted with a battlefield camera known as Kestrel, a system created by Logos Technologies Inc. of Fairfax, Va., that is capable of continuously monitoring a city-sized area of land for days at a time.

MORE

 

[whitehall]

Let's see, anti-war protesters thought they saw tiny UFO's buzzing around and spying on them and meanwhile the federal government can't keep track of 3,000 illegal weapons shipped to Mexico in a truck? Is there a comprehension disconnection or is it just the drugs?

 

[American Horse]

From the link:

This is another step away from bulky heavily armed aerial vehicles or humanoid robots to a much smaller level of tiny remote-control devices. While current drones lack manoeuvrability, can’t hover and move fast enough, these new devices will be able to land precisely and fly off again at speed. One day the military hope they may prove a crucial tactical advantage in wars and could even save lives in disasters. They can also be helpful inside caves and barricaded rooms to send back real-time intelligence about the people and weapons inside.

They'd get blown off course by wind outside. To be most useful for spying in closed environments, they'd have to operate in silence. The versions considered in the article, going into caved, flying in and out of collapsed structures seem to be hype for sales, maybe to stimulate interest by potential purchaser/investors with an eye for some present unknown use. Reminds me of the way manufacturers of small drones have seeked to generate markets where surveillance is a work product like sheriffs departments, border patrolling, etc, in lieu of or in advance of sending in people.

 

[RoadVirus]

Where might this lead?


US military surveillance future: Drones now come in swarms? — RT

The CIA's R&D guys are probably sitting back thinking "Been there, done that".