October 22, 2003 :: MSNBC :: News
The MDA recently awarded a 40 million dollar contract to Lockheed to design solar-powered blimps which would be a part of a layered missile defense architecture. Some twenty-five times larger than those used by Goodyear, the umanned blimps with a payload capacity of two tons would remain at high altitude (65,000 ft) for up to several months at a time, for the purposes of identifying and tracking any missile launch. A prototype is expected to be completed in 2006.
Innovative efforts such as these should of course be encouraged. Serious strategic defenses demand a layered system, and air-based systems such as sensors and the air-borne laser (ABL)—both designed to complement a boost-phase interception, when the missile is the most vulnerable, should be given a role within such a system. While this sort of tracking system has certain unique mobility advantages, however, it also seems to be something of a half-hearted effort, one which works within the mainstream aversion to space-based defenses. Similar tracking systems placed in orbit would of course have a greater field of view than any craft at high altitude, and orbiting lasers would be able to intercept missiles much earlier in their ascent. Space-based defenses would also be much less susceptible to conventional attack. Similarly, the air-borne laser also has range limitations of several hundred kilometers, a distance far shorter than most ballistic missile’s paths. These systems, to be effective, would certainly have to be in the right place at the right time, and progress in these directions should not distract from the need for space-based defenses.
(Article)» Former Director of SDIO Abrahamson assisting in ambitious blimp program
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