Airships for The Army
By 2012, the U.S. Army hopes to field three unmanned reconnaissance airships capable of hovering at 20,000 feet for more than three weeks.
The Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicles (LEMVs), each the size of a football field, will be developed by Northrop Grumman under a $517 million contract. The company estimates the cost of a three-week mission to be about $20,000far cheaper than comparable missions by conventional aircraft. Another advantage: Airships can monitor large areas longer than fixed-wing UAVs, which have to refuel and are often called away on other missions. Slated for test flights next summer, LEMVs are part of a Pentagon procurement strategy of new lighter-than-air craft, including a radar blimp that can stay alof for years at a time.
Liked it
