Blimps on guard

last updated 8 January 2015

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.”