Earlier this year Blackwater Worldwide created a new business unit to build and deploy remotely piloted airships. Small maueverable airships are great surveillance, communications, and intelligence gathering platforms so this seems like a pretty logical extension of their business. They’ll do a ton of business with these too because this is exactly the type of operation that most agencies should be contracting out anyway.
Blackwater Facts has more:
Blackwater Airships, a unit of Blackwater Worldwide, designed the blimp to carry intelligence-gathering cameras, sensors and communications gear for counterterrorism, counternarcotics and border security operations. The blimp is to be unmanned and piloted by remote control from the ground.
Blackwater intends for its airships to be low-cost alternatives to other unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The blimps can fly at 10,000 feet and require only a crew of three.
I’d like to see a dozen of these things on the Texas-Mexico border starting Monday but that’s a whole other issue. I can definitely see them being deployed at the local level for special event security. HPD certainly seems interested in having that capability. Head over to The Virginian-Pilot for really cool photos of the tests.
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