Washington – In the era of $300 million fighter jets, satellite- guided rockets and complicated battlefield computer networks, Multimax Inc. is trying to revive an old-fashioned technology to thrust the information technology firm onto the front line.
The company has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this project, whose result will be familiar: It’s a blimp.
“It is somewhat uncharted waters” for the company, said Ron Oholendt, a retired Air Force colonel and the program manager.
The company has enlisted help from NASA and scientists at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, which is analyzing the design, and last year began hunting for support from the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security and the director of national intelligence.
With $14 million, the company could finish building and test a prototype for its airship, which they call the Maxflyer, Oholendt said. The company plans to submit a proposal for the system with the Homeland Security Department on Friday, he said.
Multimax is one of several defense companies pouncing on the military’s renewed interest in using high-flying, unmanned, helium-filled balloons – sometimes tied to the ground with a long rope – as possible weapons. Lockheed Martin Corp. is developing a blimp that it says will reach an altitude of 65,000 feet, while Raytheon is developing one designed to reach 10,000 feet and be tethered.
Blackwater USA, better known as one of the largest security contractors in Iraq, expects to finish its prototype, which aims to reach 5,000 feet to 15,000 feet, in December.
The military’s interest is driven by a search for cheap alternatives to satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.
Some low-flying versions are already in Iraq, Afghanistan and along the U.S.-Mexico border. The blimps are known as airships or aerostats, a type that is tethered to the ground, and can stay up longer than the unmanned aerial vehicles popularized by the Iraq war and are cheaper than military satellites that can take years to launch.
