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Northrop Grumman -Spy Blimp Size of Football Field

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posted on Jun, 18 2010 @ 01:52 PM
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Just ran into this interesting airship. Someone is going to mistake this thing for a UFO. Just wait and see. At any rate this is an interesting prospect. They'll have to fly this thing really high to keep it from getting shot at.

Army Preps ‘Unblinking Eye’ Airship for Afghanistan




The military already employs a fleet of blimps to look for enemies and relay communications. But none of them are as big, as high-flying, or as far-seeing as this Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle, or LEMV. It’s supposed to float at 20,000 feet for up to three weeks at a time, snooping on absolutely everything below with a variety of sensors.

Read More www.wired.com...


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/75554032697e.jpg[/atsimg]

[edit on 18-6-2010 by dbates]



posted on Jun, 18 2010 @ 02:09 PM
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My dad works for Northrop ... I asked him in an email what he knows about it and thanked him for making the all-seeing eye possible haha. Pretty crazy how huge that thing is!



posted on Jun, 18 2010 @ 02:11 PM
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reply to post by dbates
 


When stationed at Edwards AFB, I saw this blimp.
It’s no secret, however it is a miniature of what is to be a Very Large Airship. It will off load by tilting down the back the 3 decks, to the ground. Each ship will have the capacity to carry an entire armored company.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a6455c68bca1.jpg[/atsimg]



[edit on 18-6-2010 by Violater1]



posted on Jun, 18 2010 @ 02:35 PM
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reply to post by Violater1
 



The full scale version will have 3 decks. This will be much larger than a football field. The inside will be pressurized and remain in hot spots more 7 miles above the earth.
However, this version is from Lockheed skunkworks.


[edit on 18-6-2010 by Violater1]



posted on Jun, 18 2010 @ 02:51 PM
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Reminds me of this one that the news tried to pin as a ufo...



And...



articles.latimes.com...


Pentagon plans blimp to spy from new heights
The giant dirigible would use radar to closely and constantly monitor activity on the ground from 65,000 feet.

March 13, 2009|Julian E. Barnes

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said Thursday that it intends to spend $400 million to develop a giant dirigible that will float 65,000 feet above the Earth for 10 years, providing unblinking and intricate radar surveillance of the vehicles, planes and even people below.

"It is absolutely revolutionary," Werner J.A. Dahm, chief scientist for the Air Force, said of the proposed unmanned airship -- describing it as a cross between a satellite and a spy plane.

The 450-foot-long craft would give the U.S. military a better understanding of an adversary's movements, habits and tactics, officials said. And the ability to constantly monitor small movements in a wide area -- the Afghanistan- Pakistan border, for example -- would dramatically improve military intelligence.

"It is constant surveillance, uninterrupted," Dahm said. "When you only have a short-time view -- whether it is a few hours or a few days -- that is not enough to put the picture together."

The project reflects a shift in Pentagon planning and spending priorities under Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who has urged the military services to improve intelligence and surveillance operations while cutting high-tech weaponry costs.

If successful, the dirigible -- the brainchild of the Air Force and the Pentagon's research arm -- could pave the way for a fleet of spy airships, military officials said.

...



posted on Jun, 18 2010 @ 02:57 PM
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reply to post by dbates
 

A possible new terrorism target? If that thing came down in a built up area would cause some serious problems. Seems like a waste of money. UK is getting new military class drones soon from BAE systems, for 2012 I believe.

BTW not suggesting I or anyone else should terrorise folk


[edit on 18-6-2010 by Big Raging Loner]



posted on Jun, 18 2010 @ 02:58 PM
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reply to post by Violater1
 


I think the tag code was missing the last bits...we'll see....

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a6455c68.jpg[/atsimg]


OK...see the prob. The last bits after

/member/a6455c68

will be the rest of the photo ID (12 digits total) and the ".jpg"

Find your picture again...click on the embed tag, but make sure you go full length. The whole thing includes the (bracket)atsimg] and the [/atsimg(bracket) at each end....



[edit on 18 June 2010 by weedwhacker]



posted on Jun, 18 2010 @ 06:33 PM
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I was thinking for a spy blimp to be the size of a car or an ant in today's age, but a football field! That thing would be so visible. That blimp would go down in world history next to the long penis shaped Zepplin that burned to the ground. Now they needed to make a vagina shaped one?!

[edit on 18-6-2010 by Shrukin89]



posted on Jun, 18 2010 @ 09:04 PM
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reply to post by weedwhacker
 


Thank you. Got it fixed.



posted on Jun, 19 2010 @ 02:08 AM
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Blimps are far more economical of an option to set up rapid recon and data relay networks.

For the time being, few countries have the facilities necessary to shoot them down. It would take a hell of an air-to-air system to do it, and any ground-based system would be virtually impossible to effectively employ - they'd only be a threat if the blimp flew close enough for them to be shot down... and systems like that are hard to hide.

Even so, with the way laser point-defense systems are coming along, I doubt a blimp is really going to have much to fear for very long.



posted on Jun, 20 2010 @ 07:41 PM
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looks like a nice target,
large surface area, not bad


when will the US start using these targets, i mean ships



posted on Jun, 27 2010 @ 12:28 AM
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Originally posted by Aim64C
Even so, with the way laser point-defense systems are coming along, I doubt a blimp is really going to have much to fear for very long.


Or will they have more to fear?

Isn't the development of laser weapons something that might also work against the blimp, especially if the blimp is at 20,000 feet and the laser can shoot to 25,000 feet?

I wonder how many more blimps the air force has that are secret?



posted on Jun, 27 2010 @ 01:02 AM
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Does it have a cloaking shield? Because it's a rather large target.

Bet it's not an ark at all. Bet it's the prototype escape ark for the elite in 2012. They have to start testing it, and they know people would notice it in the skies, so they have to come up with an excuse.



posted on Jun, 27 2010 @ 03:37 AM
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At 65,000 feet it's going to be out of range from shoulder launched missiles, and small arms fire. It's not as if insurgents have S-400 sam launchers, or extremely high powered lasers either.


Bet it's not an ark at all. Bet it's the prototype escape ark for the elite in 2012. They have to start testing it, and they know people would notice it in the skies, so they have to come up with an excuse.

Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

reply to post by alaskan
 



Do you have any more images of that blimp? Any pictures of it on the ground?

[edit on 27/6/2010 by C0bzz]



posted on Jun, 27 2010 @ 10:22 PM
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For an idea of what was being thrown around in the late 80's see this link to a Popular Science article from 1988. Can only imagine what was prototyped in the mid 90's out at Groom. STARTS PAGE 56
[url=http://books.google.com/books?id=yQAAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA50&dq=car+and+driver&hl=en&ei=exMoTNGNCMX_lgfc5bySAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ve d=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=car%20and%20driver&f=false]1988 PopSci Blimps Attack -->PAGE 56



posted on Jun, 27 2010 @ 10:40 PM
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Originally posted by C0bzz
At 65,000 feet it's going to be out of range from shoulder launched missiles, and small arms fire.
Where did you get 65000 feet? I was reading what the OP said:


It’s supposed to float at 20,000 feet for up to three weeks at a time, snooping on absolutely everything below with a variety of sensors.



posted on Jun, 28 2010 @ 08:23 AM
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reply to post by Arbitrageur
 


www.latimes.com...

No idea why one source says 20,000 feet and the other 65,000. Most sources seem to say 20,000 feet so I'll give you that. I think that's out of range from manpads but I'm not sure.

[edit on 28/6/2010 by C0bzz]



posted on Jun, 28 2010 @ 11:16 AM
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Originally posted by Big Raging Loner
reply to post by dbates
 

A possible new terrorism target? If that thing came down in a built up area would cause some serious problems. Seems like a waste of money. UK is getting new military class drones soon from BAE systems, for 2012 I believe.



Define 'came down' - blimps/airships/dirigibles are not aircraft and it would take a significant event (a very very large explosion) to have one come down with any force behind it, and even then it would probably be in small pieces.

Thats the nice thing about these things - they fail soft, not hard.



posted on Jun, 28 2010 @ 11:19 AM
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Originally posted by C0bzz
At 65,000 feet it's going to be out of range from shoulder launched missiles, and small arms fire. It's not as if insurgents have S-400 sam launchers, or extremely high powered lasers either.


Pretty sure it wouldn't matter in most cases anyway - blimps have multiple gas cells (in something that size, probably several hundred to a few thousand) in the main canopies - you would have to take out a lot of them for anything to happen, and even then it would be a controlled descent. For anything below RPGs, the gas cells would probably be self sealing anyway, so it could take a heck of a lot of punishment before it encounters any problems.



posted on Jul, 10 2010 @ 02:09 AM
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Wouldn't bad weather be the biggest threat to such a huge airship?Sure it could avoid it but eventually one would have to fly through a thunderstorm.It'd be one helluva turbulent ride if it's able to withstand the forces mother nature throws at it.



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