Army’s LEMV Soars Over Historic Airship Site in First Flight

12 AUGUST 2012

Have any of our readers wondered whatever happened to the long-awaited Army's LEMV (Long  Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle) ? Well, first, we have to recall that in the Army, anything that moves is called a "vehicle" ---- even what most other knowledgeable observers would call an airship .

Emerging from the hangars and storage facilities of the Joint Base Fort Dix / McGuire Air Force Base/Lakehurst Naval Air Station was the LEMV , a 300+ foot long  airship built by Northrop-Grumman.  Its design mission is Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) ; its original design specifies flight without a crew (Remotely Operated Vehicle --- ROV) , but for this sortie it took to the air for an hour-and-a-half  with a crew to perform a launch-and-recovery and test the operation of its flight control system .

At 300+ feet in length, the airship must have been eerily reminiscent of another tragically iconic airship that was attempting to land at the same Lakehurst airrfield 75 years ago. We'll let you do the math and deduce which Lighter-Than-Air craft we're talking about. Like medieval alchemists avoiding a curse by refusing to speak the forbidden word aloud, we will eschew uttering the fateful name.   

This was the successful culmination of a project that cost on the order of $500,000,000 dollars (we believe that the original contract specification was for "up to three airships") and took years to develop.  To the surprise of this writer and quondam Captain, U.S. Air Force, this airship was built for the U.S. Army . It will undergo at least a month of testing and is the first successful result , in an Olympics event of its own, of the critical need for ISR surveillance of future war zones as well as a host of non-military missions.

eMail HYBRIDPELTA@HOTMAIL.COM for a free copy of the semi-famous 31 Applications for Airships . The first ten (10) requests get a copy of our (genuine U.S. Postal Service) custom-made postage stamp, lightly cancelled, on the envelope containing your 31 Apps . The stamp image is of Roald Amundsen's airship Norge crossing the Arctic ice. 

This is important news, and good news after a series of attempts, because the Pentagon has not previously succeeded in this effort for years, and it's ironic that it was the Army, rather than the Navy (previous Gold Medal winner with its anti-submarine blimps of the Second World War) or the Air Force, whose hegemony of the air is now challenged, possibly as the result of LTA craft being scorned for so long by the USAF as the result of Fighter-Pilot Syndrome --- "If it's not supersonic, we're not interested" .

The LEMV airship is scheduled to head to a war zone next year, at the earliest.  An Army spokesman issued the following statement, "Additional first flight objectives include airworthiness testing and demonstration, and system level performance verification . All objectives were met during the first flight” .

If the LEMV successfully concludes its tests, it may deploy to Afghanistan for combat trials in early 2013, ironically just as the rest of our military forces appear to be returning from that theater of operations .  Its mission there will undoubtedly include persistent surveillance --- as much as weeks on end --- monitoring insurgent troop operations. We understand, to our delight, that it may wind up pulling double duty as a cargo carrier ; it is specified to lift seven tons of cargo and carry it for 2,400 miles at 30 miles per hour . thereby justifying its role in civilian life after its Honorable Discharge. Clearly, there are many jobs in that career choice waiting for it .

Seven tons of cargo ? Will someone please page Dr. Prentice, of ISO Polar and the University of Manitoba, famous for the "Airships to the Arctic" Cnference series ? He has been championing this development of sensible airship transportation along those lines for years. As the unprecedented warming of the entire continent is melting the ice roads upon which depend supply chain logistics TO the north and critical carriage of strategic minerals FROM the north, a suitable replacement is sorely needed.  

    Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle                    Illustration: Northrop Grumman

We steadfastly refuse to call it a blimp. Its design appears to us to be a hybrid, ADDING  lift derived from its aerodynamic shape in which the shape of the entire envelope of the craft acts as an airfoil TO lift derived from the natural lifting power of its lighter-than-air internal gases .

Its ingenious combination of  remote controls, satellite-based information,  and high-technology sensors, appears to be a fairly effective, but complex, mix.

 The airship’s inaugural sortie had been pushed back several times;  combining a giant airship with satellite-based remote controls and the latest high-tech sensors is more difficult than Northrop thought it would be.  As happens with any new integration of complex technologies, the Army had to  extend its initial schedule of test and approval several times. The first flight was scheduled for June, but in both military and major civilian projects a two month delay is not unreasonable. Northrup

Lockheed Martin, a Northrop-Grumman competitor, was working to receive a multi-billion-dollar contract to develop a cargo airship, dubbed the Walrus. At the last minute, the Pentagon zeroed out funding.

Lockheed Martin, never one to give up easily, continued to develop its Walrus airship designs using its own financial resources and finally sold its first modern LTA airship design to a Canadian cargo company for an unspecified sum.

We have no details of that transaction, and we understand that the Army does not engage in entrepreneurial enterprises, BUT we believe that it would have been a good plan to heed the dictum condensed from a paragraph in an Airships to the Arctic Conference  : "Don't sell 'em, lease 'em?" .

We wish both Northrop-Grumman AND Lockheed Martin notable success on these landmark projects. Our country can't lose !

Errors and Omissions Excepted