by starroute » Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:07 pm
(I put 'flying saucers' in quotes because going by the photo, they look more like children's pool toys. But that aside...)<br><br>(And what the hell is *Blackwater* doing in the military tech business? Does that make anybody else nervous?)<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/06/AR2006080600499.html">www.washingtonpost.com/wp...00499.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Military Blimps Report for Duty<br><br>By Renae Merle<br>Washington Post Staff Writer<br>Monday, August 7, 2006; Page D01<br><br>In the era of $300 million fighter jets, satellite-guided rockets and complicated battlefield computer networks, Multimax Inc. is trying to revive an old-fashioned technology to thrust the information technology firm onto the front line. The Largo company has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this new project, the design looks like an elliptical UFO, but the result will be familiar: It's a blimp.<br><br>"It is somewhat uncharted waters" for the firm, said Ron Oholendt, a retired Air Force colonel and the program manager. The company has enlisted help from NASA and scientists at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, which is analyzing the design, and last year began hunting for support from the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security or the Director of National Intelligence. With $14 million, the company could finish building and test a prototype for its airship, which they call the Maxflyer, Oholendt said. The company plans to submit a proposal for the system with the Homeland Security Department on Friday, he said.<br><br>Multimax is one of several defense companies pouncing on the military's renewed interest in using high-flying, unmanned, helium-filled balloons -- sometimes tied to the ground with a long rope -- as possible weapons. Lockheed Martin Corp. is developing a blimp that it says will reach an altitude of 65,000 feet, while Raytheon Co. is developing one designed to reach 10,000 feet and be tethered to the ground. Blackwater USA, better known as one of the largest security contractors in Iraq, expects to finish its prototype, which aims to reach an altitude of 5,000 feet to 15,000 feet, in December.<br><br>The military's interest is driven by a search for cheap alternatives to satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. Some low-flying versions are already in Iraq, Afghanistan and along the U.S.-Mexico border. The blimps are known as airships or aerostats, a type that is tethered to the ground, and can stay up longer than the unmanned aerial vehicles popularized by the Iraq war and are cheaper than military satellites that can take years to launch, supporters of the technology say.<br><br>"They can stay aloft very efficiently for long periods of times," said Col. Jeff Souder, product manager for an Army program. An airship is "somewhere around five to seven times less expensive than a manned aircraft per hour, and it would be greatly less expensive than satellites."<br><br>The market is still small, but analysts say it could develop into a multibillion-dollar industry if the technology can survive the pitfalls that led to its initial demise, including being shot down by enemy gunfire or falling prey to damage by bad weather. "They make a heck of a big target in the sky, but it's possible they could have communications, missile-detection and other applications," said Michel Merluzeau, director of military airborne systems at Frost & Sullivan Inc., a research firm. "They still make a very big blip on a radar screen, so you can't put them too close to the enemy."<br><br>(more) <p></p><i></i>
