Military blimp on the loose over PA!

[John Connor]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/10/2...en-free-its-tether-in-maryland/?intcmp=hplnws

A JLENS blimp that has been tethered at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland has broken free Wednesday and is being tracked by two fighter jets traveling over Pennsylvania at 16,000 feet, a NORAD spokesman said. The blimp was spotted over Bloomsburg, Pa. dragging its 6,700-foot cable. The cable reportedly damaged area infrastructure and caused sporadic power outages.
JLENS is short for Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor. The craft looks like a blimp, but the tether technically means it is an aerostat. The craft is the size of a football field and cost about $180 million.

If it gets over the ocean I'd shoot it down, but apparently it is descending atm. If you see it you are asked to call 9-11.

Apparently NORAD can auto deflate this thing all the while it's uprooting guard rails and tearing down power lines. The blmp is the size of a football stadium!

 

[ultimatebob]

Hey you, I already posted a thread for this!

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2452700

 

[gorcorps]

Hey you, I already posted a thread for this!

It's a tie, and as hard as it is for me to give credit to the OP... ties go to those that provide links

 

[gorcorps]

JLENS is short for Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor.

Apparently if your acronym is still too large you can just throw out half of the letters

 

[ultimatebob]

Bah... OK.

What I find annoying is that there aren't any news choppers following this thing around.

I figured that we would be seeing live footage from the WNEP (The ABC station in that area) helicopter by now. There are some good pictures on Twitter, anyway, thanks to some kids from Bloomsburg University. Go Huskies!

This thing must have some crazy top secret stuff on it.

 

[Kaido]

 

[feralkid]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sych8BReg6k

 

[Ns1]

6700 foot cable? WTF

 

[nakedfrog]

Apparently if your acronym is still too large you can just throw out half of the letters

Yeah, that's the military for you.

 

[Elixer]

Well... this story is deflated now.

Down in Montour County.

 

[ultimatebob]

Well... this story is deflated now.

Down in Montour County.

Yeah, I know where that is. I grew up around there. Twitter has a couple of pictures of the crash.

 

[Rubycon]

Fled Zeppelin?

Going down... going down now... going down....

 

[MarkXIX]

We had one get hit by lightning and explode and it scared the shit out of us. We all scrambled for our body armor and weapons thinking we just got hit by an IED or something.

 

[norseamd]

 

[John Connor]

So I wonder if they will learn their lesson and use two cables? After all, I heard a general say they lost blimps all the time in Afghanistan. You know, this is like Leboize (?) Rule. If you hit your finger with a hammer, hold the hammer with two hands. Likewise, if you keep losing blimps, use two tethers! LOL

I mean look what happened now. 35,000 freaking people have no power and guardrails have been up rooted. Now guess who pays for that? Joe tax payer.

Add another cable!

 

[Slew Foot]

ISIS did it! Now we have no defense for land attack cruise missiles! We need to increase the defense budget by 76347364273%!!

 

[Rubycon]

So I wonder if they will learn their lesson and use two cables? After all, I heard a general say they lost blimps all the time in Afghanistan. You know, this is like Leboize (?) Rule. If you hit your finger with a hammer, hold the hammer with two hands. Likewise, if you keep losing blimps, use two tethers! LOL

I mean look what happened now. 35,000 freaking people have no power and guardrails have been up rooted. Now guess who pays for that? Joe tax payer.

Add another cable!

Put wires underground and build stronger guardrails.

Oh and ban blimps.

 

[ultimatebob]

Sooo... who shot it down? I doubt they're going to give us an honest answer on that one considering the sensitive military payload.

 

[Ruptga]

Sooo... who shot it down? I doubt they're going to give us an honest answer on that one considering the sensitive military payload.

Already posted.

ISIS did it! Now we have no defense for land attack cruise missiles! We need to increase the defense budget by 76347364273%!!

But maybe Bush did it with the help of two blasts Biden. You know, like at Sandy Hook.

 

[twinrider1]

Bah....was hoping for Kirov Airship.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sych8BReg6k

what

I keep listening it gets weirder.

:|

 

[Nograts]

We had one get hit by lightning and explode and it scared the shit out of us. We all scrambled for our body armor and weapons thinking we just got hit by an IED or something.

Had one in Iraq on a giant mast, Afghanistan was on that 7k foot cable. Wind would blow and it'd be in the next province. At our 20-man OPs we'd tie a box to a big balloon as a scare tactic.

 

[WT]

Now it just looks like Halloween decorations gone horribly wrong.

 

[Hugo Drax]

It cost 1 billion dollars. What is this made out of?

 

[CZroe]

This image makes me dream of one day creating a giant replica cocoon airship from The Venture Bros to unleash on some unsuspecting region.