Flying at 65,000 feet, the giant airship would be nearly impossible to see, beyond the range of any hand-held missiles and safe from most fighter planes.
The United States is planning to build a USD 400-million sophisticated "spy blimp" that will float 65,000 feet above the Earth and track enemy aircraft and troop movement on the ground in troubled nations like Pakistan and Afghanistan, an American newspaper has claimed.
The 400-foot-long dirigible -- in fact a cross between a satellite and a spy plane -- will travel to any destination in 15 days; survey targets upto 375 miles away, and can remain airborne for ten years, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"It is absolutely revolutionary. It is constant surveillance, uninterrupted. When you only have a short-time view -- whether it is a few hours or a few days -- that is not enough to put the picture together," chief scientist for the US Air Force Werner JA Dahm was quoted as saying.
The project reflects a shift in Pentagon planning and spending priorities under US defense secretary Robert M Gates, who has urged the military services to improve intelligence as well as surveillance operations while cutting high-tech costs.
And, if successful, the dirigible -- the brainchild of the Air Force and the Pentagon's research arm -- could pave the way for a fleet of spy airships, military officials were quoted as saying.
Flying at 65,000 feet, the giant airship would be nearly impossible to see, beyond the range of any hand-held missiles and safe from most fighter planes, the officials said, adding it could be out of range of surface-to-air missiles.
In fact, the dirigible will be filled with helium and powered by an innovative system that uses solar panels to help recharge hydrogen fuel cells. And its military value will come from its radar system as the giant antenna allows the military to see farther and with more detail than it can now.
"Being able to observe threats (and) understand what's happening is really the game-changing piece here," Dahm was quoted by the US newspaper as saying.
Added Jan Walker of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon's research arm: "The things we had to do here were not trivial; they were revolutionary."
The Air Force has signed an agreement with DARPA to develop a demonstration dirigible by 2014. The prototype will be a third as long as the planned surveillance craft -- known as ISIS, for Integrated Sensor Is the Structure, as the radar system will be built into the structure of the ship.
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