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Country:	USA
Basing:	Air

Details

The High Altitude Airship (HAA) is a 500-foot-long, unmanned, radar-carrying surveillance blimp that will detect and track incoming ballistic missiles as they approach U.S. coastal regions. The blimp will hover above the jet stream at an altitude of 65,000 feet (or approximately 12 miles) for months at a time and will have the ability to detect low-flying missiles that may have slipped underneath ground-based radars. Once operational, it will be an important early-detection element of the broader U.S. missile defense architecture.

 

Blimps are otherwise known as “aerostats” and have been around since World War I. Over the years, the U.S. military has frequently used blimps in surveillance and reconnaissance roles. During the 1980s and 1990s, for instance, the Air Force created the Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS), essentially a “picket fence” of 10 blimps stationed along the U.S.-Mexico border to detect illegal drug shipments. Each TARS blimp is over 200-feet long and can ascend to 15,000 feet while tethered by a single 25,000-foot-long cable.

 

In recent years, the military has expanded the role of blimps to include anti-missile capabilities. In 1998, the Army began to develop the Joint Land-Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS), a tactical radar system to protect U.S. forces overseas against cruise missile attacks. In October 2001, the Army hired a Clemson University-led consortium to figure out how to make a blimp’s outer “skin” lighter, more durable, and less affected by ultraviolet light, acid rain, and other harsh weather.

 

In September 2003, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) awarded a $40 million development contract to Lockheed Martin to build the High Altitude Airship prototype. Lockheed Martin currently manufactures the Goodyear blimps that can be seen over big sporting events. These blimps are approximately 200 feet long with a volume of 200,000 cubic feet. By contrast, the HAA prototype will be 500 feet long, 160 feet in diameter, with a volume of 5.2 million cubic feet, i.e. more than 25 times the size of the average Goodyear blimp.

 

MDA plans to deploy the HAA at an altitude of 65,000 feet where the air is one-twentieth the density that it is near the ground. One of the biggest challenges facing MDA and Lockheed Martin is how to get the HAA from the ground to its area of deployment, since the helium gas inside will expand more than fifteen times as the blimp rises. To solve this problem, the HAA will be filled mostly with air when it is close to the ground. As it rises, the air inside the blimp will be forced out and helium from five small inner balloons will replace it. This “balloon-within-a-balloon” concept will allow the HAA to maintain its football-like shape throughout all stages of flight.

 

Once deployed, the HAA will generate its own power supply from thin-film photovoltaic solar cells. It will require 10 kilowatts of electricity to run its 4,000-pound radar system. The prototype HAA will include batteries to keep the electricity flowing at night, although the final version will most likely use lightweight fuel cells. Four electrically powered engines will each drive two 30-foot-wide propellers that will provide the blimp’s forward thrust. The propellers will allow the HAA to hover within a mile of its assigned location, thus maintaining its fixed “geostationary” nature.

 

In combat situations, enemies will find it surprisingly difficult to destroy the helium-filled, 500-foot-long blimp. Although it is big and slow moving, the HAA will be deployed well beyond the range of most ground-launched missiles. In addition, its lightweight outer fabric will make it almost impossible to detect with radar. At 65,000 feet, the HAA will be able to cover an area of approximately 750 miles in diameter, allowing it to detect and track most incoming ballistic missiles. It will carry either (1) laser radars for locating ballistic missiles, (2) relay mirrors to extend the range of the Airborne Laser, or (3) radar systems to detect low-flying cruise missiles that may have slipped underneath ground-based radars.

 

Lockheed Martin will test its prototype HAA in 2006. MDA plans to deploy approximately 10 blimps to provide overlapping coverage of U.S. coastal regions.

 

 

Sources

 

“Anti-Missile System To Use Blimp 25 Times Larger Than Goodyear’s.” World Tribune, 22 October 2003.
Clemson University, Press Release.
GlobalSecurity.org.
Goodman Jr., Glenn W. “Lighter-Than-Air Behemoths; Airships And Aerostats Eyed For New U.S. Defense Roles.” Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, 1 March 2004.
“Missile Defense Blimp Closer to Taking Flight,” Global Security Newswire, 30 September 2003.
Popular Science.
Shachtman, Noah. “Blimps Are Back, Elevated By New Roles, Materials.” Chicago Tribune, 17 April 2004.
Sirak, Michael. “Lockheed Martin Wins Airship Competition.” Jane’s Defense Weekly, 6 October 2003.
Tanton, Matt. “Blimp Technology Has Promising Future For Missile-Defense.” The Exponent, 8 November 2001.

Prototype High Altitude Airship Proceeding

June 22, 2005 :: Inside Defense :: News

The Pentagon has decided to build and demonstrate a prototype of its High Altitude Airship (HAA), reports Defense Daily. As envisioned, the HAA is a 500-foot-long, unmanned, radar-carrying surveillance blimp designed to detect and track incoming ballistic missiles as they approach U.S. coastal regions. The blimp would hover above the jet stream at an altitude of 20 km for months at a time. In particular, it would have the ability to detect low-flying missiles that could slip underneath ground-based radars. A flight test of the prototype HAA is proposed for FY 2008. (Link) 

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Solar Energy for BMD Blimps

May 27, 2004 :: News

The High Altitude Airship, the missile defense blimp being pursued by the Missile Defense Agency, may be the subject of solar energy technology. The MDA has contracted with a solar energy company to research the feasibility to line the airships with thin-film solar photovoltaic cells. Such “solar photovoltaic” technology would allow the airship to maintain aloft and self sufficient for long periods of time. (Article, Link) 

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Israel to Build Airship to Track Missiles

March 4, 2004 :: Washington Times :: News

Precise monitoring and tracking of incoming ballistic missiles is an important element to defend against them. In recent months, the US has begun research on a High Altitude Airship, a necxt-generation blimp, to do just this. Now Israel has followed suit, and begun to develop its own such device. Theirs would be 200 yards long and 60 yards wide, would remain at 70,000 feet above the surface for years, and would be capable of tracking missiles up to 600 miles away. (Link) 

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