For the first time, the
U.S. Army
lofted a blimp equipped with a new cruise-missile and drone-fighting
radar system high above rural Maryland. The system, made by
Raytheon Company and known as JLENS, consists of two helium-filled aerostats,
or tethered blimps, that float 10,000 feet above the ground and carry
powerful radars.
"JLENS is strategically
emplaced to help defend Washington D.C. and a Texas-sized portion of
the East Coast from cruise missiles, drones and hostile aircraft,"
said Dave Gulla, vice president of Raytheon Integrated Defense
Systems' Global Integrated Sensors business. "JLENS can detect
potential threats at extremely long ranges, giving North American
Aerospace Defense Command more time to make decisions and more space
to react appropriately."
As part of the deployment,
Raytheon engineers raised one of the football-field sized aerostats
thousands of feet in the air and conducted a series of tests to
ensure it was operating as designed. The company will continue
to test and integrate the radar for several more days, then turn the
first JLENS balloon over to soldiers of the U.S. Army's A Battery,
3rd Air Defense Artillery.
The second aerostat is scheduled to
go aloft in early 2015. Following a series of additional tests,
it will also be turned over to the Army.
The 263rd Army Air and Missile Defense
Command, which is responsible for defending the airspace over the
National Capital Region, will also use information from JLENS.
