JLENS: Blimp Battle Continues With Letter From Rep. Robert Andrews

[unhappycamper]

http://defense.aol.com/2013/03/18/jlens-blimp-battle-continues-with-letter-from-rep-robert-andre/

JLENS: Blimp Battle Continues With Letter From Rep. Robert Andrews

WASHINGTON: New Jersey Congressman Robert Andrews fired off a letter to the Army on March 12th urging the service to keep funding the JLENS radar blimp in 2014. (Click "download this document" at left to see the letter). Such missives are a standard munition in exchanges between the Pentagon and Capitol Hill, but it's remarkable to see anyone able to think as far ahead as next fiscal year -- which begins in October -- when the spending bill for this year -- already halfway over -- is still struggling towards a Senate vote.

JLENS -- short for the jawbreaking moniker Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor -- is an Army-managed missile defense program to put sophisticated radars on aerostats (the fancy name for blimps) that can then provide targeting data via electronic networks to anti-missile systems on ships or on the ground. It's the last survivor of a series of cancelled aerostat programs, and the one that seems to have performed the best. In recent tests, the existing pair of JLENS blimps, which work together as a single "orbit," have helped Navy Aegis ships shoot down mock cruise missiles and the Army track ballistic missile launches. But the military has stopped JLENS procurement at those two aerostats, with further procurement on hold pending an operational test at the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground, currently expected in fall 2014.

The spending bill now moving through Congress includes $159.9 million for JLENS. That's some $30 million less than the administration requested, but only because the prep work for the test has been delayed until next fiscal year. That Presidential budget request, for FY 2014, would normally have been made public weeks ago, but with the ongoing uncertainty over sequestration and continuing resolutions, the administration is holding off.




unhappycamper comment: Rep. Andrews' letter --> http://hss-prod.hss.aol.com/hss/storage/industry/e3cc2015a42cbfc72a553c909087ffd7/Rep.%20Andrews%20letter%20to%20Sec%20McHugh%20re%20JLENS%203-12-13.pdf