Pentagon to launch Blimps to guard against Cruise Missiles...or is it to watch us Mr NSA?

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Is there an offshore threat we as citizens do not know about? Is there a war coming? WHy are these needed?

Seems that the US will be lauchning blimps that can cover a 150 mile radius to monitor for 'crusie missiles'? From who? Now, these are the same blimps that are used to track vehicles and humans overseas so is this just another way to monitor us.

The Pentagon has discovered a gap in the defenses of Washington, D.C., and it's about to test a solution.

But depending on your point of view, the solution is either vital for national security or a threat to American privacy.

Starting this fall, two blimps will float at 10,000 feet over the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland in an attempt to develop a defense for the nation's capital against cruise missiles fired from ships offshore.

But those same blimps can also be outfitted with radars capable of tracking vehicles on the ground and with cameras that can watch people, much like blimps already do at U.S. bases in Afghanistan and along the border with Mexico. That would give government the ability to follow American citizens as they go about their daily lives.

Officials insist they have no plans to put cameras on the blimps, but Christopher Calabrese of the ACLU points out there's no law against it.

blimp_two.jpg
The blimps carry radars CBS NEWS
"Right now there are no rules," he said. "There's nothing that bars us from having high-powered cameras monitoring our every public movement."

Drones and now blimps? C'mon Mr NSA...is your hard drive space running out from tracking all of our cellphones?

So, they'll be able to see a cruise missile coming, as if they didn't have enough radar all over to do the exact same thing already (except on 9-11-2001, but they were 'busy' that day). That doesn't mean they'll be able to stop it as it wafts overhead, explodes, and plunges us into the dark ages by way of an EMP.

I think they just found something to spend a few extra billion on they had hanging around. Can you mount an anti-missile weaponry system on board a blimp? Or will it just be used to sell advertising, make money for the Pentagon and cause traffic accidents below?

reply to post by signalfire


I would think launching a missile from a blimp would be rather difficult.

If or when they try this I would love to be filming so I could post it on youtube.

reply to post by matafuchs


The government already have the ability to follow American citizens as they go about their daily lives. I don't see how blimps change anything considering "There" surveillance capabilities are more than lightly light years ahead technologically speaking.

reply to post by justreleased


The Blimps are supposed to defend against/detect incoming cruise missiles not launch them.

reply to post by matafuchs


When a corrupted government goes paranoid it means only one thing, that their corruption is about to be unveil and their powers to be challenged by the people or that they no longer care about the people finding out about their corruption.

So what will be the one to be the truth.

reply to post by matafuchs

Drones and now blimps? C'mon Mr NSA...is your hard drive space running out from tracking all of our cellphones?

Nah its to be sure we know they are always watching

Propaganda like the Budweiser Blimp

Yeah, because we get SOOOO many incoming cruise missiles.....

So there will be an OBAMACARE ad on the side?

I understand that 'they' have many ways to track us but as was stated by another poster, it sure would be nice to have it there in the case of an "EMP" blast per se over the US to make sure that threats could be tracked around DC.

reply to post by JohnnySasaki


Hey, it only takes one missile launch to ruin your day!

And I wonder why I have intermittent thoughts about buying a rocket launcher myself.

They're probably illegal, huh?

Every autumn, the hills here in Oregon are alive with the sound not of music, but of Army and Sheriff's department helicopters going 'whomp, whomp, whomp' over the Emerald Triangle, first looking for illegal grows and then after hacking down said illegal grows, flying overhead with massive baskets filled with their, ummm, 'take'; proceeding to parts unknown with about a half million dollars worth of the best crop possible.

Now, I know all about how the illegal growers are supposed to be making the BLM's forests and federally owned lands dangerous and are messing up the place with chemical fertilizers and Roundup and all that other stuff that is perfectly fine on our food, but not so great in the middle of nowhere, but it's all very sad somehow.

And why is it I never smell them actually burning those huge baskets o'stuff? Hmmmm?

The least they could do was throw a big party and invite the locals.

Recon blimps are nothing new.

The Florida Keys had Fat Albert since 1980. This brief is from 2000.
www.fas.org...

Operational Sites:

Yuma and Ft Huachuca, Ariz.;
Deming N.M.;
Marfa, Texas;
Eagle Pass, Texas;
Matagorda, Texas;
Rio Grande, Texas;
Morgan City, La.;
Cudjoe Key (2 aerostats operate at Cudjoe Key)
Horseshoe Beach, Fla.;
Lajas, Puerto Rico.

andy06shake
reply to post by justreleased

 

The Blimps are supposed to defend against/detect incoming cruise missiles not launch them.

edit on 24-1-2014 by andy06shake because: (no reason given)

Yes but that would be hysterical on a looney to on level.

reply to post by jrod


Those were 'put into service' for the War on Drugs, right? I had forgot about reading those.

Reminds me of the us govt blimps that dot the coastline of Puerto Rico. The govt claims its to watch the weather the locals think they are for civilian surveillance or ( since they seem to appear near ufo hotspots ) to watch for UFOs.

signalfire
reply to post by JohnnySasaki

 

Hey, it only takes one missile launch to ruin your day!

And I wonder why I have intermittent thoughts about buying a rocket launcher myself.

They're probably illegal, huh?

Lol, yes, very much so. I mean, you might be able to take a trip to the middle east and scoop some up, then charter a private boat or plane and smuggle them in,.... but legally? That's a negative, Ghostrider.

Aerostats deployed by the military at U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan typically carried powerful surveillance cameras as well, to track the movements of suspected insurgents and even U.S. soldiers. When Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales murdered 16 civilians in Kandahar in March 2012, an aerostat above his base captured video of him returning from the slaughter in the early-morning darkness with a rifle in his hand and a shawl over his shoulders.

Defense contractor Raytheon last year touted an exercise in which it outfitted the aerostats planned for deployment in suburban Baltimore with one of the company’s most powerful high-altitude surveillance systems, capable of spotting individual people and vehicles from a distance of many miles.

The Army said it has “no current plans” to mount such cameras or infrared sensors on the aerostats or to share information with federal, state or local law enforcement, but it declined to rule out either possibility. The radar system that is planned for the aerostats will be capable of monitoring the movement of trains, boats and cars, the Army said.

Yeah, that's the ticket!

reply to post by matafuchs


What's the bet these things are mistaken for UFOs!

Or could they possibly be a cover story for UFO hovering over said city after all it would not be the first time UFOs have allegedly did a fly over! LoL

Drones and blimps are surreal! Again what year is it?

i just hope that nobody takes a shot at those blimps with a hi powered rifle or flashes them with a laser pen or 2

reply to post by Jordan River


Last time I looked out the window it was 1984.