"Tethered flights of a prototype - which cost about $3 million to build and is about a one-fifth scale model of the planned commercial airships - are scheduled later this month. "
After reading this article again I had another brainstorm...
The fact that this prototype is one-fifth scale and "is what it is" makes me wonder too what its actual application(s) could be used for in that smaller size.
For Homeland Security, military applications and/or watching our borders, a full-size airship would not really be necessary. Beefing up and/or modifying ships the size of this "prototype" would be ideal for other applications so a successful test could open up new contracts long before the 'communications' version (S3/S4?) is built and operational.