Blimps on guard

Washington

The Defense Department wants to ring the country with unmanned blimps equipped to spot incoming missiles and planes, the Los Angeles Times reported this week. The helium-filled airships would be two to three times the size of a Goodyear blimp. They would hover at 70,000 feet, where they would have a clear view of all air traffic and even movement on the ground. Someday, the floating sentinels could be armed with chemical lasers to shoot down missiles. It’s not a far-fetched plan, experts said. Balloons were used for reconnaissance during the Civil War, and the Germans dropped bombs from dirigibles during World War I. The idea “may feel early-20th-century,” said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, but there is nothing “evidently preposterous about it.”

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