Pentagon Suspends Blimp Program: Report

The Pentagon has suspended the JLENS program at Aberdeen Proving Ground pending the outcome of an investigation into last week’s runaway blimp, according to the L.A. Times.

The blimp that escaped its mooring at Aberdeen Proving Ground on Oct. 28 was one of a pair deployed to protect an area from North Carolina to Boston.

Together the blimps formed a program called JLENS—Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Netted Sensor System—intended to protect the region from objects like missiles, ground targets, swarming boats and unmanned aircraft.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command was conducting the three-year test, in which two blimps watched the region from 9,950 feet in the air, to see how the JLENS technology could fit in with existing defense systems.

Now the Pentagon has suspended the JLENS program indefinitely, the L.A. Times reports.

In addition, citizens and lawmakers are calling for a review of JLENS after the runaway blimp broke away from its mooring in Harford County and dragged its tether from Maryland to northeast Pennsylvania, knocking out power for approximately 30,000 people along the way.

While the Army was quick to say that there was no loss of life, lawmakers are questioning whether the program is worth the risk.

The blimp that escaped from Aberdeen “endangered lives, disrupted paths, left thousands of people without electricity” and raises the question of the value of JLENS, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) told WJZ.

Police had to shoot down part of the blimp, technically called an aerostat, in a difficult-to-access ravine, defense officials said, because it had not completely deflated, despite its manufacturer’s claim that it had self-deflating safety mechanisms built in.

On Saturday morning, the National Guard loaded up the last of the “bits and pieces” of the nearly $250,000 blimp from a wooded area more than 100 miles from Aberdeen, according to WJZ.

At home where the airship took off, Harford County Executive Barry Glassman said he is concerned about his citizens’ safety and will meet with Army representatives “to determine if we need to alter our plans,” WJZ reported.

Cummings said he wrote a joint letter with Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) to the national defense and transportation secretaries asking for all contracts and documentation related to JLENS by Nov. 12 so lawmakers could review whether JLENS was a ”worthwhile investment,” according to Fox News.

After the blimp escaped last Wednesday, unnamed defense officials maintained the blimps were an “important surveillance capability for keeping Washington and the East Coast safe,” according to Homeland Security Today.

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While the cause of the blimp’s tether break is under investigation, the second blimp was grounded.

Preliminarily, the North American Aerospace Defense Command reported that there was no indication that terrorism or cyber threats were factors in the blimp’s escape.

Before the runaway blimp, JLENS came under scrutiny due to a recent investigation by the Tribune Publishing Company, which claimed that $2.7 billion in funding for the project was shepherded through the system, amid considerable military opposition, by a defense official who has since retired and been on the payroll for Raytheon, the company that made the airships.

Pictured, blimp recovery efforts in Pennsylvania. Photo Credit: NORAD.