Later this year, a pair of unmanned, blimplike aircraft carrying military radar equipment will rise above suburban Baltimore to watch a 340-mile radius of the East Coast.
Each aerostat is tethered to a mooring station and structures that contain controls, communi - cation and data-processing systems powered by generator or commercial electricity. The setup can be transported by truck, plane or boat.
Data are sent through high-speed fiber optic cables in the tethers. Aerostats can also communicate by radio links.
Two aircraft, or “aerostats,” will float at an altitude of about 10,000 feet. The pair, called an “orbit,” will work in tandem to detect missiles and other objects within their range. One aerostat detects threats using low-frequency, long-range radar. The other uses higher frequency radar to track threats and provides targeting data that could be used to intercept them.
How they work
Official name: JLENS
, short for Joint
Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense
Elevated Netted Sensor System.
A high-powered video and infrared
sensor (called an MTS-B) was mount
ed on the aerostat system for a test
in Utah that was announced in 2013.
It was able to follow vehicles “dozens
of miles away” as well as collect
video of a test participant planting a
fake roadside bomb. The Army says it
has “no current plans” to use this
sensor in the Aberdeen test.
LENGTH 243 feet
The aerostats are filled with helium and can stay aloft for 30 days at a time.
The other sends targeting data to ground sta -
One provides 360-degree coverage.
The pair will be moored roughly two miles apart above Aberdeen Proving Ground, land owned by the U.S. Army.
Mobile mooring station
Communications and control, data and signal processing station
NORTH CAROLINA NEW YORK
Atlantic Ocean Raleigh
Vehicles on the ground can be detected within a 140-mile radius , an area of 62,000 miles.
Radar can detect aircraft within a 340-mile radius , or an area of about 363,000 miles.
SOURCE: Raytheon, U.S. Army.