Army Blimps

Think they still do. Interdiction and observation. But who knows.:shake:
 
If we did while I was in, I have no idea who operated them. I certainly never read or heard about them. Could they have been CBP?
 
Nope- they were Coast Guard-and were called the Mobile Aerostat Program- had support ships along with aerostats. I knew they were in Key West and I think Grand Cayman -I've subsequently looked them up, they were transferred to the DoD in 1992. Why they are in the Army now is one of those questions for the bureaucrats to ponder.
 
Nope- they were Coast Guard-and were called the Mobile Aerostat Program- had support ships along with aerostats. I knew they were in Key West and I think Grand Cayman -I've subsequently looked them up, they were transferred to the DoD in 1992. Why they are in the Army now is one of those questions for the bureaucrats to ponder.

You're confusing two programs, I think. The JLENS thing isn't really new. In Iraq in 06 through 08, we referred to them as either a JLENS or an Aerostat. Almost every decent size FOB in OIF or OEF has one of these. Over there, they mount TV/IR camera systems on them. The JLENS program is the radar program. I think we ended up calling it a JLENS over there because the aerostat blimps themselves were adapted from the existing JLENS program. What you're seeing now is a continuation of that program.
 
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