The large gray blimp recently seen cruising in the skies over St. Mary’s County is scheduled to finish testing its onboard equipment in the next two weeks at Patuxent River Naval Air Station.

Since its arrival in mid-October the aircraft has been used to test the Littoral Airborne Sensor-Hyperspectral (LASH), a system being developed by Science and Technology International (STI) Government Systems to identify ground and submerged objects by using color recognition rather than by heat or optical recognition.

"It’s the science of color," explained Gregory Plumb, STI’s assistant program manager for the LASH project. "This system can detect minute differences in color, not just from red and orange and blue, but also subtle differences of the same color."

STI began developing the system nearly three years ago to assist in underwater submarine location and identification.

"We’ve been able to locate and identify submarines and other submerged objects," Plumb said, "at tactically significant depths. We’ve passed 500 operational hours in a P-3 (airplane) and an AS-60 (helicopter)." Security restrictions prevented Plumb from saying how far into the water the LASH system can detect an object, but he did say that whales swimming 25 to 50 feet below the surface have been identified with the equipment.

Above ground, once the system spots a target, it can automatically activate a video camera and direct it to where the object is located, which would allow operators to get precise visual image of what the LASH found.

Randolph Carter, STI’s operations manager, said the blimp, leased to STI from Airship Management Services, is based in Elizabeth City, N.C.

"This is one of the largest airships in service today," said Carter. In addition to a pilot and co-pilot, he said, the blimp travels with a ground support crew of more than a dozen people. The aircraft measures about 200 feet in length, is seven stories high and weighs about 12,000 pounds. The blimp’s gondola carries up to six passengers and equipment, and two Porsche 930 automobile engines power the blimp’s twin propellers. When not flying, the airship is moored to a crane, floating a few feet above the ground.

"Airships have been handled basically the same way for the past 50 years," said Carter. "There are a lot of cost benefits to airship operation." Unlike conventional aircraft, he said, a properly equipped blimp crew could stay airborne for more than 24 hours without having to return to its base of operations.

Since its arrival at Pax River, the STI team has been using the Patuxent River and nearby landscape to continue the testing. Flying at about 1,500 feet at a speed of 30 knots, the airship’s LASH equipment has been identifying 30-inch discs – simulated mines – which have been submerged at various depths in the river. It has also successfully located and identified simulated terrorist campsites that the test crew has built in heavily wooded areas along the Patuxent shoreline.

Plumb explained that the LASH is programmed to look for subtle variations in the target area’s color makeup. Whenever it identifies a change, even a small difference in an area as small as a few inches in size, the equipment notifies the operator.

"For instance, it has been programmed to find small orange objects in the water," he said. "We could find someone in the water, wearing an orange life jacket, not by actually seeing him, but by finding the color differences on the water’s surface."

"There are many applications for this technology," said Plumb, "both commercially and for the military. The only limitation we have right now is our imagination."

In the private sector, he said as an example, LASH systems could be used in farming to identify specific areas where diseased crops are growing, minimizing the need to treat entire fields where only a small area needs attention. LASH could also be used for environmental surveying, pollution mapping, surveillance, and search-and-rescue operations. Plumb said LASH might even be adapted to locate and identify diseases in the human body.

In military applications, LASH – in addition to the antisubmarine warfare uses – can be utilized in reconnaissance operations, locating and identifying unexploded ordnance, and finding enemy activities hidden by camouflage.

Shortly after the airship arrived at Pax River last month, it was outfitted with special equipment that would have been used in surveillance operations during the search for the Washington, D.C. serial snipers who terrorized the area for most of the month. As final preparations were being made to take the blimp to the nation’s capital, however, two suspects were apprehended and the mission was cancelled.

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