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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThat fucking blimp cost 1.4b dollars.
$1.4 Billion Army Surveillance Blimp Breaks Free & Wreaks Havoc
U.S. military officials scrambled Wednesday to capture a billion-dollar unmanned surveillance blimp that broke free of its moorings in Maryland and drifted across Pennsylvania, downing power lines and knocking out electricity for tens of thousands of residents. The blimp has the capacity to surveil a region the size of Texas. Built by military contractor Raytheon, there are only two of these blimps in the world. Each effectively costs $1.4 billion. The U.S. military has another surveillance blimp, of a different model, that floats over Kabul at all times.
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/10/29/headlines/14_billion_army_surveillance_blimp_breaks_free_wreaks_havoc
DJ13
(23,671 posts)hmmmmm........
Wilms
(26,795 posts)PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)hedgehog
(36,286 posts)DJ13
(23,671 posts)I ran across that gif in a random search on Google.
It looks familiar, but I dont know.
sakabatou
(42,152 posts)DJ13
(23,671 posts)sakabatou
(42,152 posts)DJ13
(23,671 posts)Wow!
pa28
(6,145 posts)Why not hoover up your grocery list and naughty text messages with a 1.4 billion dollar spy blimp? It's only fitting.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)Hadn't thought about that.
Dustlawyer
(10,495 posts)Who were their targets? Who had they been listening to?
Monk06
(7,675 posts)the US taxpayer That company has had a blank check since the days of Dr Stangelove
That airbag is not worth $1.4 Billion even with the electronics
Aerows
(39,961 posts)I don't know how he even managed to graduate, because he couldn't poor piss out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the sole.
He is the epitome of the good ol' boys network. That's the kind of folks that get ahead at Raytheon - complete and total idiots that speak schmooze.
ProfessorGAC
(65,021 posts)That's funny stuff, Aerows!
Aerows
(39,961 posts)that I hold back when I know something is WRONG.
I am pretty much genetically incapable of *not* speaking up.
llmart
(15,537 posts)We need more people like you who are willing to speak up.
malaise
(268,993 posts)The MIC -the real destroyers of America
underahedgerow
(1,232 posts)270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn't it?"
Rock Hound, Armageddon. Best. Quote. Ever.
JonathanRackham
(1,604 posts)Government seems to overspend on everything.
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)on everything."
Fixed it for ya.
JonathanRackham
(1,604 posts)I thought zeppelins went out with WWI.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)rainbow4321
(9,974 posts)Guess that $1.4 Billion didn't include bullet proofing...
It's gonna be laying around in the trees/field for a while...news said it is gonna take a few weeks to get it removed.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)it was way way over there
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)and a view from a slightly different angle.
Ultimately, government spending IS the result of the decisions of the citizens it belongs to. You know, WinkyDink, representative government of the people, by the people, and for the people? We're incredibly improvident and wasteful both ways, although I have no idea if, or how much, this blimp is an example of that. At least it wasn't used one time and sent off to thousands of landfills.
Marr
(20,317 posts)buy a fucking blimp?
You really believe government spending represents public opinion?
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)The "opinion" may just be don't bother me with the details, but there are over 300 million of us. "THEY" do nothing we don't allow.
If even 5% more liberals/Democrats/progressives of all persuasions consistently voted, we could override the conservatives' tendency to obedient, passive authoritarian support of the people who are sacking our country and could start tossing the bums out. We are a majority, it's just that most of us live in more urban areas and many of our votes are wasted (like by electing 1 candidate with a 100,000-vote majority instead of 20 with 5,000-vote majorities in more rural areas).
BTW, that $11 billion (only one of our many frivolities AFTER we shuffled most of our nation wealth into the hands of a few) ) should make clear that we can afford Social Security -- we just have to stop the conservative leaders determined to destroy it by, among other plottings, telling us we can't.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)are "more"? Ignorance of much we'd like to know is inevitable, but we should at least try to avoid the indulgence of marrying ignorance itself with discontent to produce conviction.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Value is relative, to be sure, or subjective- but Halloween is a lot of fun for a lot of people.
Shakes out to value in my mind.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Snarkoleptic
(5,997 posts)Response to Warren Stupidity (Original post)
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Duppers
(28,120 posts)the Rethugs would be having fits.
I fear this blimp surveillance will be used here too.
Paper Roses
(7,473 posts)While our children starve, the pentagon keeps up these wonderful (snark) endeavors.
Wish I was younger, I'd find a way to join some endeavor that attempts to curb the ridiculous expenditures that this government of ours seems to think are necessary.
I've been around for a long time. Seen the follies since I was old enough to pay attention.
One boondoggle after another. We have no say, no voice that means anything.
I feel so sorry for our young people. Talk about batting you head against the wall. I no longer believe that contacting your congress person makes a difference. We are on our own.
Response to Warren Stupidity (Original post)
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dbackjon
(6,578 posts)In 2012, the JLENS program experienced a Nunn-McCurdy cost breach due to budget cuts for unit procurements. Under Secretary of Defense Frank Kendall reviewed the program and directed the Army to continue with a reduced test plan using the two existing JLENS developmental orbits and prepare for operational testing at Aberdeen.[11] Two years later, in March 2014, a report by the Government Accountability Office concluded that $2.78 billion had been invested in system design, development and other costs.[12]
So $1.4 Billion for each is effective cost right now.
FreedomRain
(413 posts)I'm not saying this isn't an example of DoD waste and dubious motives, but come on. For that 2.8B we bought a lot of research that will go to other projects, some of them more worthy perhaps.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)dbackjon
(6,578 posts)Let's spend a lot of money on projects that don't work, in hopes that someday, we'll develop something useful to the military spying programs
Demeter
(85,373 posts)8 useless pieces of plastic?
Response to Demeter (Reply #31)
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bulloney
(4,113 posts)Another shining example of the MIC budget rat hole.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Really?
bulloney
(4,113 posts)It was damaging power lines and the like before they shot it down.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Dragging cable, you say? Hmmm...
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0SM2F920151029
A high-tech U.S. military blimp designed to detect a missile attack came loose on Wednesday and wreaked havoc as it floated from Maryland into Pennsylvania while dragging more than a mile of cable and knocking out power to thousands.
....and that's only the piece of cable that snapped when it was being deployed.
I've seen it under normal operation. You don't have a gun that shoots that high.
ryan_cats
(2,061 posts)It was built with a $500 hammer and had a $20k toilet seat.
d_legendary1
(2,586 posts)And all this time I thought it was effective marketing...
...wait...1.4 BILLION!!!! HOLY COW!!!!! No wonder we have nothing for education!
azmom
(5,208 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Nice one!
WDIM
(1,662 posts)Repugs complain about feeding the hungry while we make the war profiteers rich. what a twist up messed world we live in.
KeepItReal
(7,769 posts)That's in today's dollars.
MSNBC says each blimp costs $235 million with R&D costs factored in.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)That would be a real cheap, low-tech weapon! Bring down the grid, why don't you?
tabasco
(22,974 posts)pretty soon you're talking about some real money.
http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Senator_Everett_Mckinley_Dirksen_Dies.htm
Gore1FL
(21,132 posts)The article agonizingly forgot to mention this obvious part of the story.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)that are wealthy as all get out. I won't state my affiliation, because I do not need retaliation.
Everyone that is associated with the MIC in this country - and make no mistake they are up to not just their behinds, they are up to their necks - they have a river of money that is drenched in blood.
We all know it. It has gone way too damn far.
EVERYONE that is even peripherally attached knows it.
I listen to people glad-handing and it disgusts me. The biggest enemy of the United States of America at this point is itself.
Brother Buzz
(36,427 posts)B Calm
(28,762 posts)Brother Buzz
(36,427 posts)Larry Walters had his own wiki page - sad story
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Walters
louis-t
(23,292 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)Big man, Pig man, ha ha charade you are
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)with apologies to Mel Brooks.
Historic NY
(37,449 posts)passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)couldn't put Blimpy together again.
ArcticFox
(1,249 posts)It's a 1.4 billion dollar program. Each blimp costs considerably less.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)I'm having trouble with the math but I think 2.8/2 = 1.4, amirite?
In 2012, the JLENS program experienced a Nunn-McCurdy cost breach due to budget cuts for unit procurements. Under Secretary of Defense Frank Kendall reviewed the program and directed the Army to continue with a reduced test plan using the two existing JLENS developmental orbits and prepare for operational testing at Aberdeen.[10] Two years later, in March 2014, a report by the Government Accountability Office concluded that $2.78 billion had been invested in system design, development and other costs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JLENS
PosterChild
(1,307 posts).,,, it makes no sense at all. R&D is not manufacturing where unit cost is a valid measure. The purpose of R&D is to make a few mistakes up front before you make 10,000 or 10,000,000 mistakes. It would be extremely stupid to try to save on eventual unit costs by cutting R&D.
Of course , this method of assement makes a lot of sense for those whose product is sensational journalism.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)I'm sure the unit cost will be way lower than 1.4B. Never mind that this stupid program was cancelled and that the technology is circa 1910, and that it was a boondoggle from start to finish. I'm sure level headed people like you have all the real facts on hand to dispel the obvious: that this program produced two blimps at a cost of 2.8B dollars, that the blimps were worse than useless, and that the final act of this folly was to have half of the "fleet" shot down after going beserk by cops with shotguns.
Now lets talk about the JSF. I'm sure you have some perfectly marvelous explanation for why we shouldn't consider each airplane's price tag 12+B dollars, and that the fact that the planes actually suck is a good thing.
PosterChild
(1,307 posts).... cruise missles. Criuse missles are hard to detect and target because they hug the terrain and can't be easily detected by a ground based radar. That's why criuse missles are used to
take out antiaircraft installations in the early phase of a military operation - they help to establish air superiority.
So the problem is to get the anti missle radar up off the ground and looking down on the cruise missle. This will allow it to be detected and targeted. Prima facia an aerostat is an excellent choice for this sort of elevated platform.
My guess is that the cost of this program has been mostly concentrated in the development and testing of the radar detection and targeting electronics than the aerostat platform.
Criuse missles have been a stratigic advantage for our country for some time, but others are developing and beginning to deploy that technology and we should have an effective defense for our anti aircraft capabilities.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Clearly the money didn't go into the tether.
The merits of a transportable deplorable air defense system that can cover a wide area are debatable, but reducing what this thing is to "a blimp" is not accurate.
It was news to some that we didn't have a system to provide raw blanket data on domestic flying objects in 2001, since we have long had the ability to detect inbound bombers or ballistic missiles since the Cold War. But we wouldn't see a sub launched cruise missile from coastal waters. Again, what that's worth is debatable, but this wasn't a 1.4B balloon.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)The entire lifecycle of developing, using, and maintaining it is not the "price" of the blimp. That's the same logic pharma execs use when they say a pill "costs" $3000.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)Total cost 2.8B. Yet another pentagon MIC-win/disaster for taxpayers. However in fairness the JSF program with a expected cost of 1.1 MOTHER FUCKING TRILLION DOLLARS and a per unit cost of $12.5 billion per fucking plane, makes this nonsense just noise. Oh and by most accounts the F-35 sucks.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Hell, I'd even do two for one.
librechik
(30,674 posts)1939
(1,683 posts)Most of the cost would be in the sophisticated and futuristic electronics package it carries 6,000 feet up in the air.
BTW, in 2014, Raytheon's total sales were just under $5 billion of which 44% was bought by government entities.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)They would do better with a couple 3k drones that can carry 2 pounds of cameras or whatever!!
itsrobert
(14,157 posts)n/t
KoKo
(84,711 posts)here on DU about what a Boondoggle that was! Like some don't remember what happens to Blimps because they are Too Young to remember the one that went down in New Jersey so many Decades ago...
Yeah....it did what Blimps do...and our Tax Dollars at Work.
Divernan
(15,480 posts)Well, we needed these more than new hospitals for vets, amiright? No money to expand Medicare. Raise the retirement age on social security. Ain't America great? (sarcasm)
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/258609-pentagon-army-blimp-actually-still-deflating
The blimp traveled almost 200 miles north at 30 miles per hour, reaching an altitude of 16,000 feet before it lost altitude and speed, landing in northeastern Pennsylvania. Another Pentagon spokesman confirmed reports that the 240-foot blimp was shot down, but did not know how close to the ground the blimp was when it happened.
It is not clear who shot down the blimp.
The system consists of two aerostats: one that provides broad surveillance, and the other that provides more specific surveillance. The blimp that provides more specific surveillance is the one that broke free.
The blimps were both flying at about 6,800 feet, and were tethered to the ground at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., when one of the cables broke near the base. The blimp then drifted along with the about 6,800-foot long cable hanging down. It snapped power lines and left tens of thousands of residents in central Pennsylvania without power. The Pentagon is working with local communities and residents to gather an assessment of how much damage was caused, and how much it will cost to repair it.
Kath1
(4,309 posts)Some people at Raytheon probably retired at 40 off of that thing!
This is total bullshit and I am glad it is coming to light. When people are going hungry and scrambling for jobs in this country, this is obscene!
PosterChild
(1,307 posts)... the major cost was for the aerostat. It's more likely to be the radar and anti-missle targeting electronics that are being developed.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)PosterChild
(1,307 posts).... yes, of course it's perfectly justified. Because it isn't damn useless war shit - it's extremely USEFUL war shit
The pupose of the program is to protect against cruise missles. Criuse missles are hard to detect and target because they hug the terrain and can't be easily detected by a ground based radar. That's why criuse missles are used to take out antiaircraft installations in the early phase of a military operation - they help to establish air superiority.
So the problem is to get the anti missle radar up off the ground and looking down on the cruise missle. This will allow it to be detected and targeted. Prima facia an aerostat is an excellent choice for this sort of elevated platform.
Criuse missles have been a stratigic advantage for our country for some time, but others are developing and beginning to deploy that technology and we should have an effective defense for our anti aircraft capabilities.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)PosterChild
(1,307 posts)... rational, reasonable, ethical ends; and the reasonable means to rational, reasonable, ethical ends are rational, reasonable, and just.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)now matter how these pretzels are twisted.
PosterChild
(1,307 posts),... well, I won't repeat the cliché since it's a bit crude. You have yours, I have minem and the American people have their's
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)PosterChild
(1,307 posts).... until there is an effective world hegemony with the power to enforce a uniform system of justice over all man kind, that's basically the way it's going to be. And establishing that world governance, along with the world peace that would result will require a lot more war shit than you might imagine. So if you want a uniform and certain world peace you might want to think about what it might take to realistically obtain it.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)PosterChild
(1,307 posts).... give Putin a call and let me know what he says.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)PosterChild
(1,307 posts).... I'm OK with the war shit.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)PosterChild
(1,307 posts)..... violence, agression and injustice, which are very real in the world and require an effectve and unapologetic response .
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)PosterChild
(1,307 posts)... you should take your show on the road.... let us know how that turns out!
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)PosterChild
(1,307 posts).... you play baltimore or Washington DC
Try to make it for art-o-matic !
Phil1934
(49 posts)brought down with shotgun blasts.
PosterChild
(1,307 posts)... good old American ingenuity .
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)Orrex
(63,209 posts)klook
(12,154 posts)It's the Blimp, Frank! It's the Blimp!
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)It's amazing how big they get.
I just gotta think of the joke you just wrote the punchline for.
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)This was an expensive balloon.
(I did design work on some electronics that were in the beast)
PosterChild
(1,307 posts).... electronics are the most expensive part of the program , not the aerostat. And, just my opinion , worth their cost.
PosterChild
(1,307 posts).... cruise missles. Criuse missles are hard to detect and target because they hug the terrain and can't be easily detected by a ground based radar. That's why criuse missles are used to
take out antiaircraft installations in the early phase of a military operation - they help to establish air superiority.
So the problem is to get the anti missle radar up off the ground and looking down on the cruise missle. This will allow it to be detected and targeted. Prima facia an aerostat is an excellent choice for this sort of elevated platform.
My guess is that the cost of this program has been mostly concentrated in the development and testing of the radar detection and targeting electronics than the aerostat platform.
Criuse missles have been a stratigic advantage for our country for some time, but others are developing and beginning to deploy that technology and we should have an effective defense for our anti aircraft capabilities.
freebrew
(1,917 posts)NSA, CIA, Haliburton, et. al.
Basically, this is part of the $$$ that funds the BFEE.
JohnnyRingo
(18,628 posts)So in perspective, we trade three of these for one carrier? A B2 Spirit stealth bomber is similarly priced, and we hate to even risk those in combat.
I fully understand that the cost of development is spread across the production run, and that's why the relatively small Spirit bomber fleet is so expensive.
To clarify, if it cost $3b to design and build the blimp, and we only want two, that would cost a billion and a half each. If true, the Pentagon is the bad guy here for entering into what they knew would be a cost prohibitive contract.
smiley
(1,432 posts)and one was surveiling Kabul. What then, was this one surveiling?
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)There have been two of them tethered at Aberdeen for a while now.
The original article is wrong. There are only two produced by that manufacturer, but there are way more than two in the world. When I was enlisted and stationed at Fort Huachuca, AZ they had an aerostat flying. They still do apparently...
Operational Sites: Yuma and Fort Huachuca, Ariz.; Deming, N.M.; Marfa, Eagle Pass, and Rio Grande City, Texas; Cudjoe Key, Fla.; and Lajas, Puerto Rico. Sites located at Morgan City, La., and Matagorda, Texas, are in a cold-storage configuration. Contract management office and logistics hub are located in Chesapeake, Va.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tethered_Aerostat_Radar_System
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)You can see them clear across the Chesapeake.