This little blimp had bigger dreams than spending its entire existence tethered to the Army's whims. On Wednesday, the Pentagon said the blimp — which actually isn't all that little, and happens to cost a neat $2.7 billion — broke loose from its mooring at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland and, well, made a break for it.
The blimp is technically an unmanned JLENS, or a Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, The Hill reports. Its job is normally to float 10,000 feet in the air and use its radar to detect airborne threats. Right about now, however, it's racing up the eastern seaboard, trailing 6,700 feet of cable.
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