
Unmanned surveillance blimp breaks tether, floats over Pennsylvania - blueatlas
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/10/28/the-army-lost-control-of-a-giant-unmanned-surveillance-blimp/
======
Zikes
I've been enjoying Edward Snowden's comments about this on Twitter. One great
retweet by him from @droosien:

"Runaway surveillance blimp" is the perfect metaphor for the
military/intelligence industrial complex. And the perfect mascot.

~~~
Alupis
It is suspicious circumstances to say the least.

Every image of these JLENS blimps show them anchored with a great many anchor
ties, not just one (or a few). However, every report says it just "came loose"
or "escaped it's tethering".

Conspiracy theory would probably speculate on some new tech being demoed or
tested over Baltimore. These things are supposed to be for detecting missiles
and high altitude planes, which would beg the question what one was doing
blown up and ready to fly in Baltimore.

~~~
jonnybgood
>Conspiracy theory would probably speculate on some new tech being demoed or
tested over Baltimore.

It says it right in the article:

"It's currently on a three-year test run to see if it can help detect cruise
missiles or enemy aircraft from 10,000 feet above ground."

~~~
Alupis
> It says it right in the article

No, the article says the JLENS program is on a three-year test run to see if
it can help detect cruise missiles or enemy aircraft from 10,000 feet above
ground.

That three years is up this year (started program in 2012)... so perhaps they
will be decommissioned, or re-purposed.

My statement was more along the conspiracy theory line of domestic
surveillance tech being tested.

------
ChuckMcM
Cue Weird Al Yankovich with the tune "Blimps just wanna have fun." :-)

I've wondered about the failure mode of aerostats like this one. I found the
threat to power lines particularly interesting. If one floated across southern
Nevada it could easily catch the lines from Hoover dam to LA. One wonders if
the blimp should drop its tether if its GPS detects it has moved more than a
mile off station. Or better yet fire up the helium compressor and bring itself
down to earth. Both options seem like they could be supported by an modest on
board battery (I presume these things are powered through their tether
normally).

~~~
strictnein
This one has knocked out power. Its cable hit some power lines.

[https://twitter.com/iduncan/status/659451147955150848](https://twitter.com/iduncan/status/659451147955150848)

~~~
ChuckMcM
it was mentioned in the article as well. My thinking was this; these aerostats
have been proposed as part of the southern border program, the powerlines
between Hoover Dam and LA typically are carrying 1,100 MW of power. Shorting
them out is one of the events which can bring down the western US grid (so a
pretty big deal). The distance between the Arizona/Mexico border to Lake Mead
is further of course (230 miles, Mexicali => Las Vegas, 80 miles from Aberdeen
to Cook County). So probably not a huge threat directly but one of those wierd
things I think about.

------
oneJob
Baltimorean here. Most days these blimps can be seen aloft. They appear less
distant than I know they must be (given they are tethered at the Aberdeen
Proving Grounds). They are very,,, present. It is unsettling. I lived in NYC
for five years where I'm certain I was often under "surveillance" (cameras and
what not in public spaces). And during the Baltimore Uprising, we now know
there was a FBI/DoJ surveillance plane in the sky. It's just different, in a
very bad way, to be able too look up, at any time, and see billion dollar
military blimps. Kinda sad.

------
jessaustin
An aerostat is literally two things, a balloon and a rope. If they can't keep
a rope tied, they should use two ropes.

~~~
maxerickson
It's trailing 6,700 feet of cable. That's some rope.

~~~
Alupis
This thing is stationary, always. Why not use a couple of ropes for the "just-
in-case" scenario (aka. "Just plain good engineering"). Imagine this happened
during a deployment in an unfriendly country.

~~~
jessaustin
Over unfriendly territory I would expect the rope to be the least of this
device's problems. While it seems that normal operating altitude would be out
of reach of most rifles [0], every time the aerostat was lowered for
maintenance it would be completely destroyed by potshots. b^)

[0] [http://www.closefocusresearch.com/maximum-altitude-
bullets-f...](http://www.closefocusresearch.com/maximum-altitude-bullets-
fired-vertically)

~~~
djrogers
It can 'see' up to 340 miles away - these could be deployed dozens to hundreds
of miles away from a target area, which would make it a lot harder to take
'potshots' at it. Plus, a bullet doesn't exactly make a big hole (relatively
speaking) in something that's 75 meters long - the thing probably leaks more
from it's seams than a handful of .30 holes...

------
dingaling
Thought experiment: _private individual_ exercises negligence and permits a
75-metre-long aerostat to break free and drift through controlled airspace.

How long before the FAA would have him / her in court?

This sort of dual-class system is why the drone registration initiative annoys
me. Truly one law for us and another for Them.

~~~
infinotize
This is a pointless strawman. This is like saying an F-15 on a training
exercise crashed and that it's unfair the pilot/crew/USAF wouldn't be treated
the same as some random who flew a drone with a gopro over an airport.

~~~
Karunamon
I don't think you know what a strawman is - parent was making a (perfectly
legitimate, IMO) point about how misconduct/negligence/accidents on the part
of the government result in few to no penalties (worst case: someone _may_
lose their job), while same behavior on the part of citizens can result in
life-ruining, throw-the-book-at-him consequences.

It's pretty hard to misrepresent an opponent's argument when there have been
no opposing arguments made yet!

------
dang
Also
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10466518](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10466518)
and
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10466507](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10466507).

------
Animats
Radar blimps are useful. One gave the first warning of Iraq's invasion of
Kuwait. It wasn't even in service yet; the contractor saw columns of tanks
approaching on radar and called it in. It makes good sense to have a good
aerial view of the Washington DC area.

It's possible that, instead of ordering a remote deflation or shooting it
down, the operators decided to let it float until it reached an unpopulated
area before bringing it down. It's bad that it dragged its steel tether across
power lines, though.

~~~
maxerickson
It's supposedly a synthetic fiber, Vectran [pdf]:

[http://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/rtnwcm/groups/gallery/d...](http://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/rtnwcm/groups/gallery/documents/digitalasset/rtn_175001.pdf)

~~~
revelation
Otherwise known as the stuff in puncture resistant bicycle tires.

------
daguava
Blimp down, tore up in some trees :(

------
elmar
$2.7 billion blimp on the lose.

------
mafuyu
Of course it's JLENS...

------
sarciszewski
[https://twitter.com/bcrypt/status/659448608362663937](https://twitter.com/bcrypt/status/659448608362663937)

I find bcrypt's response and selection in hashtag (#BlimpinAintEasy) is the
most appropriate.

~~~
peterwwillis
The Aerostat has a couple of choice memes as well:
[https://twitter.com/AberdeenBlimp](https://twitter.com/AberdeenBlimp)
[https://twitter.com/search?f=images&vertical=news&q=%40Aberd...](https://twitter.com/search?f=images&vertical=news&q=%40AberdeenBlimp&src=typd)

------
mazelife
Good piece in the Baltimore Sun from a few months ago about what a boondoggle
this project has turned out to be:
[http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/federal-workplace/bs-
md...](http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/federal-workplace/bs-md-
blimps-20150924-story.html)

"But after 17 years of research and $2.7 billion spent by the Pentagon, the
system known as JLENS doesn't work as envisioned. The 240-foot-long, milk-
white blimps, visible for miles around, have been hobbled by defective
software, vulnerability to bad weather and poor reliability."

~~~
gopowerranger
It's a test and a research project, as stated in that article. They found
10,000 ways that don't work. Edison would be proud.

~~~
mazelife
Yes, but there are an infinite number of ways it could possibly not work. How
long will they go on discovering them? Edison could say something like that
because he actually was able to successfully build and market a lightbulb.

