Runaway Surveillance Blimp Deflates Raytheon’s Hopes to Sell More

In what may be the most bizarre and public crash of a multibillion-dollar Pentagon boondoggle
ever, a surveillance blimp flying over an Army base in Maryland broke
loose Wednesday afternoon, its 6,000-foot-long tether wreaking havoc on
the countryside before it finally came down in pieces in Pennsylvania.

The giant airship — 80 yards long and about the size of three
Goodyear blimps — was one of a pair that represented the last gasp of an
18-year, $2.7 billion program called JLENS or “Joint Land Attack Cruise
Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System.”

There were once supposed to be 36 of them, their high-resolution
360-degree radar coverage up to 340 miles in any direction protecting
the nation from cruise missiles.

But costs inflated, doubts about their utility mounted, and the program was scaled back and almost killed.