November 13, 2002
vol. 1, no. 42Industry urged to show value of airships in homeland security
Airships could playa vital role in homeland security but the industry needs to demonstrate how lighter-than-air vehicles will fit into a "system of systems" for defending the country, say government and military officials.
"Clearly, lighter-than-air vehicles offer a real opportunity. Here is a tremendous platform" for surveillance and communications, said Charles Huettner, executive director of the presidential Commission on the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry.
But he added, "We need to take a national systems approach" to putting the craft to use for homeland security.
Huettner was part of a panel discussion on the role of airships and homeland security Nov. 6 at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, an Arlington, Va., think tank. He and other speakers said no one technology could protect the homeland and suggested taking a layered approach, a multileveled "system of systems" that would include airships.
Airship operators – financially devastated by Federal Aviation Administration restrictions of flights over sporting events and other large gatherings – say their craft would suit a number of security needs. Among them are aircraft and missile detection, force protection, drug interdiction, command and control, and port security.
Proponents also argue that airships are cheaper in the long run than helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft because they stay aloft longer and use less fuel.
The Defense Department uses unmanned, tethered airships, called aerostats, for drug and border surveillance from the Caribbean to the California border.
Multiple uses
The Navy is testing an airship as a platform for sensor equipment using the Littoral Airborne Sensor Hyperspectral system developed by Science & Technology International, a Honolulu imaging technology company.
In Britain, the Ministry of Defense plans to use sensor-equipped blimps hovering above suspected terrorist safe houses to eavesdrop on cell phone conversations.
And a consortium that includes the Missile Defense Agency and the North American Aerospace Command wants to develop a large, high-altitude unmanned airship as a sensor and communications platform.
David Williams, the head of aviation security management at the Transportation Security Administration, noted that in the current uncertain climate about the shape of homeland security, proposed solutions such as use of airships might fall through the cracks "without some sort of enterprise architecture. Without a context, I can’t imagine how they will fit in."
Several audience members suggested that airships needed features tailored to homeland security needs, such as chemical-biological weapons sensing. The problem, said one, is that airships "address a wide variety of missions (but) none of them uniquely."
Huettner told airship makers and operators they need an industry association to lobby the government. "If you’re going to work in Washington, you’ve got to have an association," he said.
-- John M. Doyle (johnm_doyle@AviationNow.com)
Navy had sensor on airship ready
The U.S. Navy had volunteered use of an airship outfitted with sensors and other equipment during the hunt last month for snipers who terrorized the Washington, D.C. area.
Authorities arrested suspects before the craft could be used.
The manned airship was being used by the Office of Naval Research at Patuxent Rive Naval Air Station in Maryland to test a sensing system developed by Science & Technology International (STI) of Honolulu, according to Tom Glover, STI’s director of program management.
The 200-foot-long Skyship 600 was retrofitted with a Wescam MX 20 sniper-detection system known as VIPER, Glover said Nov. 6 at a conference on airships and homeland security in Arlington, Va. The VIPER is capable of spotting a muzzle flash from the air, he said.
The airship was also outfitted with an on-board navigational system and a military radio to communicate with federal agencies on the ground. The airship quickly secured Federal Aviation Administration certification but the Oct. 24 capture of two suspects precluded use of the craft in the case, Glover said.
-- John M. Doyle (johnm_doyle@AviationNow.com)