Long before the military’s blimp went AWOL last week, the aircraft, and its bloated program had been exposed as a $2.7 billion (and counting) failure. So entrenched is our military-industrial complex that such unkillable, ineffectual, money-sucking contracts have a name: Defense specialists call them “zombie” programs, the Los Angeles Times reported in September, in an exquisitely detailed investigation that shows the failed blimp-borne radar system lost its moorings long before it took off Wednesday on its little jaunt.
The 17-year-old program has faced criticism since the beginning, but it’s been no match for the lobbying done by Raytheon Co., the private company in charge of creating and running the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor program, or JLENS, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The blimps are supposed to provide an early warning if the country were ever attacked with cruise missiles, drones or other low-flying weapons. The newspaper began its investigation after a “Florida postal worker flew a single-seat, rotary-wing aircraft into the heart of the nation’s capital to dramatize his demand for campaign finance reform” on April 15. Where was the blimp, where was the warning?
Turns out the system was “not operational” that day, as the head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, Adm. William E. Gortney, told a congressional hearing soon after. He had no estimate of when the system might be operational.
The program’s failure has long been foreshadowed and documented: In 2012 and 2013, the Pentagon’s Operational Test and Evaluation Office said the blimps were not meeting operational goals, Fox News reported, and in one case charging that JLENS “did not demonstrate the ability to survive in its intended operational environment.” Flaws were also found in the airships’ software and communications programs.
So it was probably not a surprise to anyone familiar with JLENS when one of two blimps took off without explanation or provocation on a calm day. FOX News reported that Raytheon promotional materials insist that the tether, which “carries power up to the JLENS radar,” is made of Vectran and “has withstood storms in the excess of 100 knots.” However, in the “unlikely event” a ship becomes unmoored, according to Raytheon, “there are a number of procedures and systems in place which are designed to bring the aerostat down in a safe manner.” In this case, the Pentagon confirmed that the wayward blimp was shot down.
With this latest debacle, Congress is again questioning the program. Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Elijah Cummings, D-Md., chairman and ranking member of the House oversight committee, sent joint letters to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx on Thursday seeking all documents and contracts relating to JLENS, to help them “understand whether JLENS is a worthwhile investment of taxpayer dollars,” FOX reported.
After 17 years, it certainly is not a worthwhile investment. The program is AWOL, just like the blimp. Time to belatedly deflate it, permanently.
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