The US military's runaway blimp has been a multibillion-dollar boondoggle for years An unmanned 240 foot (75m) helium-filled blimp used by the US military to defend the east coast from cruise missiles and drones broke loose from its mooring today (Oct. 28) and drifted over Pennsylvania for hours before being brought to ground, according to local news reports. Local news station SECV 8 reported that a cable hanging from the blimp took down power lines in the area, leaving nearly 14,000 people without power. The blimp is part of a program called Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS). Billed as "the future of defense" by military contractor Raytheon, the 17-year-old JLENS project has become a costly and ineffective "zombie" program, which has proven impossible to kill because of intense lobbying, an LA Times investigation found: A 2012 report by the Pentagon's Operational Test and Evaluation office faulted the system in four "critical performance areas" and rated its reliability as "poor." A year later, in its most recent assessment, the agency again cited serious deficiencies and said JLENS had "low system reliability." Each JLENS blimp costs about $182 million, and the entire project has a pricetag of about $2.7 billion.

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A Complete Waste of $180 Million (And Billions More)

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