Security

Blackwater's All-Seeing Airships

So voracious is the demand for information in Iraq and Afghanistan that the Pentagon has asked Congress to shift $1.3 billion to so-called "Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance" systems in the current budget. So it’s no surprise that Blackwater wants to get in on the ISR game. After all, the North Carolina-based merc group already duplicates […]

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So voracious is the demand for information in Iraq and Afghanistan that the Pentagon has asked Congress to shift $1.3 billion to so-called "Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance" systems in the current budget.

So it's no surprise that Blackwater wants to get in on the ISR game. After all, the North Carolina-based merc group already duplicates many military functions. It even has its own small air force.

What perhaps is surprising is the platform the company is considering. According to Air Force Times, it's an airship. "Although still in development, Blackwater’s new airships can fly twice as long as Air Force Predators and operate at one-fifth the cost, said
Blackwater Worldwide CEO Erik Prince."

The 170-foot airships won’t be armed like many of the military's drones, but they will carry the same kinds of sensors.

Prince compared his company’s airship to an F-150 pickup where nations could plug in their sensors, including forward looking infrared sensor balls, cell phone intercept boxes, radio repeaters and synthetic aperture radars.

(Art: Blackwater)