The Pentagon's fondness for bigger, blinged-out blimps hasn't exactly gone as planned. The Navy recently 'deflated' plans for their MZ-3A airship. The Air Force's ambitious mega-blimp endeavor has been all but cancelled. And the Army's HALE-D airship crashed into a Pennsylvania forest before even making it overseas.
Maybe the military will have a little more luck with something simpler. The latest addition to their blimp arsenal? A 'battle-kite' of war.
Yes, they're one part blimp and one part kite. Called Helikites, the aerostats are now being tested by Army officials, according to a report published today by Stars & Stripes. The Helikite's design is pretty much what you'd expect from a blimp-kite hybrid: A round, helium-filled blimp is strapped onto the back of a kite, and then unleashed into the air by a human operator.
The Helikites, which are already used by the British Army, are also rather wee: The vehicles currently range in size from 6 to 24 feet in length. For comparison's sake, consider that the Air Force's much-contested Blue Devil 2 blimp, which might one day soar the skies above America instead of Afghanistan, measures a whopping 370 feet.
Compared to some of the wilder blimps that the Pentagon's recently considered for duty (blimp helicopters, anybody?), there's no question that the Helikite is actually pretty tame. It can't track cruise missiles from 370 miles away. Nor can it run on internal solar panels. But what it lacks in audacity, the simple little Helikite just might make up for in actual practicality.
The military's eying the battle-kites for two main purposes: surveillance and communications in far-flung regions. And their unique design should make the Helikites well-suited to both gigs.
Blimps rely on helium to get them off the ground and keep them airborne. By adding a kite to the mix, the Helikite boasts an enhanced flying ability ' one that'd increase its ability to haul cargo, which is likely to include plenty of surveillance gear. A 24-foot Helikite, according to its parent company, Allsopp Helikites, can lug 30,000 pounds of equipment. That's five times the weight that aerostats of a similar size can lift. All that, and the Helikites can fly as high as 6,000 feet ' keeping them safely out of range from gunfire or grenade attacks.
The military is also testing the battle-kite's ability to help with communications in far-flung regions. A hovering battle-kite, equipped with communications gear, could offer mobile networks that'd vastly improve the sketchy wireless linkages currently available in remote realms of combat. According to the company, a Helikite elevated to 600 feet should be able to yield 113 square miles of Wi-Fi coverage.
And the Helikites, which cost an estimated $50,000 apiece, also have a key advantage over the other aerostats in the military's array: Because they're so small, and benefit from the wind-catching powers of a kite, they require way, way less helium.
That's good news for the Pentagon, which is already facing potential helium shortages from keeping so many aerostats aloft. In a report issued just last year, the Defense Logistics Agency lamented that 'industry cannot keep up with the increased [helium] demand' required by all those blimps. Guys: Have you considered attaching them to kites?
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