Congress Is Right To Ground The Runaway Blimp

When the JLENS air surveillance blimp cut loose from its moorings in Maryland and crashed in central Pennsylvania last fall, it raised serious questions about the future of the $2.7 billion program. The system is meant to detect cruise missiles, drones, and other low flying aircraft before they can attack the nation’s capital. But as David Willman noted in a piece in the Los Angeles Times last September, “Seventeen years after its birth, JLENS is a stark example of what defense specialists call a ‘zombie’ program: costly, ineffectual and seemingly impossible to kill.”