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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Tethered Aerostat Radar System failed




(photos taken from the Sierra Vista Herald and were taken by local witnesses. The paper did not give any name credit to any of the submitters so I can't list the names here. See link at bottom of post.)

Fort Huachuca and Sierra Vista have had this TARS floating over the fort since the mid 1980s. Others just like this one were also over strategic places in Iraq surveilling for bad guys but were vulnerable to high winds and repeated small arms fire. When it's windy or stormy out the aerostat (some call it a "spy balloon" and the city calls it an "anti-drug balloon") the white blimp remains tethered to the ground in a restricted area on the southern part of post and is monitored by the US Air Force.

This white blimp is visible from most corners of the Huachuca mountains. It's a landmark on calm days as one can see it from afar. It allegedly helps track low-flying aircraft flying in from Mexico with drug cargo. But if that's the case why do I still see small aircraft flying low over the desert from Mexico? Apparently the drug runners know where the weakness of this aerostat are and are familiar with its limits.

So it was quite a surprise to read when I got home yesterday that the blimp had been flying in yesterday's 70-90 mph gusts of wind. Not only that, but the blimp got loose and was carried east into a nearby neighborhood before it self-destructed over some powerlines and debris scattered into nearby yards. It broke into many small pieces and now the USAF and Fort Huachuca are frantically scrambling to get all the pieces back due to the operational equipment onboard.

Luckily the tarp landed in a yard of a contracor who works for Fort Huachuca. The Sierra Vista Herald, which is known to write biased articles and half-truths about anything in the area, made this artilce front-page news today. Naturally only premium members can read the entire article on line or buy a hard copy of the newspaper, but other news agencies are picking up the slack for the more local blackout.

Residents were quoted as saying they heard two booms and a thud and the smell of diesel was evident, others who were working nearby said the blimp sounded like a "jet plane taking off" as the gusts swept it eastward.

My question is why this multi-million-dollar surveillance blimp was allowed to fly overhead during forecasted high winds? This is blatant negligence, is very costly, deminishes the anti-drug and other surveillance of the area and naturally the USAF and DoD will expect replacements. Someone will have to pay for this. Luckily no one was injured in this explosion, and damage seems to be contained to a new BMW parked in the driveway of the home and some minor structural damage of the two homes that were hit by the falling, deflated balloon.

This is the second time this has happened over Fort Huachuca, that a blimp was destroyed. Since these blimps are so vulnerable to high winds, I'm surprised that the DoD hasn't found a better alternative to overhead surveillance.

http://www.svherald.com/content/news/2011/05/10/aerostat-deflates-falls-sierra-vista-neighborhoods

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