Grumman Building Football Field-Sized Robotic Surveillance Blimp 150
colinneagle writes with news of the latest in 1930s surveillance technology turned into a robot. From the article: "It's not fashionable to call this flying spy (hybrid military airship) a 'blimp,' but a Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV). You are no doubt familiar with the Goodyear blimp that hovers over football games, but the LEMV is almost the size of a seven-story flying football field; it's meant to fly at speeds between 30 and 80 knots without ceasing for 21 straight days while providing an 'unblinking' eye of surveillance. Northrop Grumman has a $517 million contract to build three of these 21st-century robotic airships for the U.S. Army. The first of three had a successful 90-minute test flight last week from the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. This first test flight included two pilots, but the Army intends for the LEMV to be like the Predator, an unmanned flying surveillance machine. Both Northrop Grumman and the Army must like the term 'unblinking,' as it was used several times to describe the 'Revolutionary ISR Weapon System' aka the LEMV."
Blade Runner flashbacks (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm having Blade Runner flashbacks.
Flashbacks to the future are strange.
Re:Helium?! (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is it bouyed with helium, which is incredibly expensive?
It's unmanned, so why not use hydrogen? Who cares if they lose the odd one to lightening?
Because there is no point in doing surveillance over non-populated areas. It may be unmanned, but there are people under it.
Re:1 Blimp, That'll Be $172M, Please (Score:3, Insightful)
Congressman: "We will take it under advisement.
Contractor 2: "I can build it for $4.5 million.
Congressman: I have a bid from Contractor 1 who says he can build it for only half a million. Why should we pay you four and a half million?
Contractor 2: "Two million for me; Two million for you - and half a million to hire Contractor 1 to build the thing."
Congressman: "I would like to announce the winner of the bid: Contractor 2".
Re:Back to the future! (Score:4, Insightful)
I seriously doubt nuclear war will happen, especially with China. We've had them for 60+ years and the US is the only country to use not 1 but 2 against Japan. No one else has, and if there was a time for nuclear war, that would have been the Cold War.
After the US dropped the atomic bombs on Japan, there has never been a similar case to be made that using nuclear weapons would end a war and save hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives.
Looking at another scenario, there has never been a case where a nuclear armed country was facing potential total defeat - faced with having to surrender.
If either of those situations occurs in the future, it would not be too surprising to see nuclear arms used again. Would a nuclear-armed Assad be willing to use such a weapon against his own people?
I do agree that the US and China won't go to nuclear war so long as the US maintains a large enough arsenal to eliminate China. If we only have enough weapons to destroy half of China then there might be a problem. China has a long history of using human wave techniques and being callous about taking casualties. In the near future I don't think that's a problem - but in 50 to 100 years, who knows?