Blown Out of Proportion
Do you ever feel like you've messed up? Do you ever feel like nobody has ever made as big of a mistake as you? Imagine how fretful and anxious you were when you made one of these seemingly irreversible mistakes. Now picture yourself being responsible for a military blimp, representing a 2.7 billion dollar program, that escaped and meandered over the homes of thousands of people in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
If you haven't already heard, on October 28, one of two pilotless blimps floated away from a military base near Washington D.C., bringing a 6,700 foot cable along with it. This massive blimp was supposed to be able to withstand winds over 100 miles per hour, but failed when put to the test of a 45 mile per hour gust. The blimp took out power lines and cut tens of thousands of people off from their electricity. Three and half hours later, it finally landed outside of a rural Moreland Township, Pennsylvania. The reason behind this random occurrence is still under investigation. Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor, or JLENS, is now a five year program in whole. In 2010, it was introduced as an advanced radar system that could detect and track airborne threats, such as cruise missiles, and be able to contact local military bases in the United States to act on the threat, but right off the bat it struggled. The 182 million dollar prototype was destroyed in a manufacturing facility in North Carolina by another civilian blimp that crashed into it during a storm. Soon after this, it began taking a storm of criticism from Democratic and Republican representatives. In 2012 and 2013, the Pentagon’s Operational Test and Evaluation Office said that the blimps were not meeting operational goals and JLENS “did not demonstrate the ability to survive in its intended operational environment.” But after an exclusive interview, it was determined that the Republican Party still stands behind this program. However, this shaky program has racked up to 2.7 billion dollars in taxpayers’ money that may not be going towards an effective cause.
After this recent fiasco with this seemingly failed operation, it looks like a bleak future for the two JLENS blimps. Once further investigation is done and a conclusion is met, there will be a small chance that this program lasts much longer. The concept is good, but the action put towards making this idea a reality has struggled from day one. The United States government can't keep putting tax money towards something that won't benefit our country as a whole. They must make the right decision and think about the money that has been wasted.
So next time you feel like you completely botched something, or that you can't climb out of hole you're in--just remember there are people out there who have wasted billions of tax dollars on a blimp that they can't keep in their own back yard.
Some information gleaned from FoxNews.com and LATimes.com
