World Surveillance Group Inc (fka WSGI)

[Renaissance]

"The Raytheon-designed spy blimps, called the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor or JLENS, used its radars to home in on a test cruise missile during a demonstration Friday at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico."

"But the JLENS also has an inglorious history. First proposed in 1998, the Pentagon had by 2007 planned to build 28 blimps — divided into 14 pairs of two when deployed — at a total cost of $1.4 billion. By 2012, the military had already spent $1.9 billion, more than the original cost, and didn’t have a single blimp ready to go. The program also needed another sum of $6 billion to field all the blimps by the year 2014."

"In the fall of 2010, a prototype was destroyed when a commercial airship crashed into it after becoming unmoored during inclement weather. That further added to costs as the Army built a replacement."

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/09/spy-blimp/

Did the Argus go canibal on another airship when it had the infamous tear? I love it. Eat the competition.