Airships being used for military UAVs

KaHn

KaHn

KaHn

Soldato
Joined
13 Oct 2004
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South Shields
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/10611420

Now I know some of you will know about this (some even the limitations of using conventianal UAV's in the ultra long endurance UAV stage) but the things which I find really funny is they say it can with stand small arms fire.......................... at an operational alt of 20k ft, have the taliban suddenly started using red bull?

Also this will be very good for the telecomunication companies on a whole for a cheap solution to using geo-stationary satalites :)

KaHn
 
Be able to endure a small amount of 'small arms fire' - can that even reach 20,000 feet :p? Nice idea though.
 
You never know, the taliban could have built hot air/ helium balloons, get up to that altitude and AK it to death.

Or what happens when its at 20k and Mr. Taliban is standing atop of the kush mountains, Mr taliban could be 1800 feet up but standing on the ground!
 
Stelly said:
not a bad idea to be honest

Stelly
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We looked at the feasability of this at uni in 2004 for normal HALE UAVs for telecomunications and told that using the "airship" idea was cheating as it was already in development.

So it's been around for a while, supprised it wasn't developed sooner for recon stuff.

KaHn
 
Well with popularity and effectiveness of UAVs, having something in the air that can stay there for a very long time without refuelling is a good idea indeed. For the conflict currently fought this is perfect, since the enemy wouldn't have any way of taking this down at 20000 feet.
 
Citizen420 said:
You never know, the taliban could have built hot air/ helium balloons, get up to that altitude and AK it to death.

Or what happens when its at 20k and Mr. Taliban is standing atop of the kush mountains, Mr taliban could be 1800 feet up but standing on the ground!
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Then it comes into operational enviroment, do not pass mountains do not collect $200 etc

KaHn
 
Amp34 said:
Sorry but £350m for 3 small automated airships? Someone's been had! :p
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Military contracts are expensive things and do make a considerable part of US economy so they don't care much for the price. Besides the cost involves the very expensive R&D involved in designing this so further end units will be cheaper.

Citizen420 said:
Again, if the blimps at 20k surely the afgahni may be able to walk up a nearby mountain and reach around 18k and let off a few AK rounds in its direction?
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Just no, not only will the bullets struggle to reach it but hitting something that high up will be nigh on impossible.
 
neoboy said:
Military contracts are expensive things and do make a considerable part of US economy so they don't care much for the price. Besides the cost involves the very expensive R&D involved in designing this so further end units will be cheaper.



Just no, not only will the bullets struggle to reach it but hitting something that high up will be nigh on impossible.
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So you are saying if someone climbed a mountain to a similar height as another object they could never hit it??
 
Citizen420 said:
So you are saying if someone climbed a mountain to a similar height as another object they could never hit it??
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Frankly if Taliban start putting their resources into making their members climb ridiculously high mountains on the off chance they can hit one of these things then they are worth every penny.
 
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