A US Military Blimp Detached From Its Anchor And Flew Away. Here Is It’s Secret Function

The rogue military blimp that detached from its base on October 28 from the military installation in Maryland was followed by millions of eyes around the country before it was brought down. The blimp caused heavy power outages in the region because 7,000 feet of it’s tether wiring got entangled with power cables and resulted in a massive power breakdown in the country. But was blimp actually designed for?

Stationed at the Aberdeen proving ground in Maryland, it was thousands of feet high in the air, and the primary purpose is given by the military to monitor the mid-Atlantic and search for any incoming enemy aircraft and missiles inbound towards the continent from the shores. It is a part of a multi-billion dollar military concept named The Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor(JLENS) by the military. The height is advantageous for any radar system as from the planned 10,000 feet height; the blip can be used to monitor skies 300 miles in all directions. Their primary purpose is to detect aerial threats, but they can easily keep tabs on ships and ground personnel as well.

But, all is not going well for the military on this project even before this local disaster happened. The blips had trouble differentiating friend from foe during tests. In 2012, the Pentagon issued a scathing report on the project and rated its reliability for homeland security purposes as “poor”. Plenty of software glitches also make it difficult to relay any intel back to the main integrated air defense networks of the nation, making it extremely ineffective. It is a single purpose of these blimps, and they are nowhere near achieving it.

It became clear that the system couldn’t be relied upon as 61-year old Douglas Hughes flew around the radar and the extremely restricted 30 miles and landed on the West lawn of the Capitol building itself. The blimps completely failed to alert anybody in the vicinity to take action against his tiny private plane.

But, the program still goes despite all these shortcomings, but why? It is unsettling for many to see that the large blimps are monitoring almost the entirety of the East Coast, and there are reports emerging that they pose a serious privacy concern for many living in that area. Also, some Intercept reports have confirmed that these new blimps could be weaponized to counter any aerial threat to themselves and the area around them. The military denies this and claims that they have been made just to track any incoming hostiles. However, in 2013, a multi-spectral targeting system with both day and light imaging was installed in one of the blimps thus negating the military claims it was just for aerial reconnaissance. Maybe the military is playing games of failure just to increase civil surveillance on the local population.

The JLENS operatives can now watch the live feed from hundreds of miles away along the coastline and several cities as well. This is a serious privacy concern for the residents, and many would want it immediately removed. Whistleblower celebrity Edward Snowden also blew his whistle on this matter saying the government had been planning civilian surveillance programs for quite some time. So, the idea of a blimp just for civilian monitoring doesn’t seem that ridiculous now does it? Here are some tweets from the guy himself: