Radar blimp funding is rejected
Key senators of both parties deny military’s request for $ 27 million to keep the troubled JLENS program alive.
WASHINGTON — Two U. S. senators with sway over all federal spending have dealt a crippling bipartisan blow to the Pentagon’s troubled $ 2.7- billion program to use radar- carrying blimps to search for enemy missiles.
Sens. Thad Cochran ( RMiss.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Richard J. Durbin ( D- Ill.), who holds the Democrats’ No. 2 leadership position in the Senate, have refused a request by the Obama administration to shift $ 27.2 million to the program to keep it alive.
Durbin now favors killing the blimp system, called JLENS.
“The JLENS program has been a big disappointment to taxpayers,” Durbin’s spokesman, Ben Marter, said in a statement. “It has cost nearly $ 3 billion.… It’s time to end the program.”
The request for the $ 27.2 million was sent to Congress last month by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, who wanted the money to restart an operational exercise in which two JLENS blimps were supposed to stand sentry above the Washington, D. C., area. Carter’s requested funding would have been on top of $ 45.5 million for JLENS included in President Obama’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year.
By Wednesday, both Cochran and Durbin had quietly informed administration officials that they opposed the request. In addition to serving as Appropriations Committee chairman, Cochran leads the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and Durbin is its ranking Democrat.
In a statement, Cochran’s spokesman, Chris Gallegos, indicated that JLENS was unlikely to receive support for any funding from the Senate.
The denial of the $ 27.2 million, Gallegos said, “is an indication that the administration’s [$ 45.5- million] budget request for JLENS is likely to receive an icy reception from the committee.”
The comments suggested that the dramatic breakaway last fall of a JLENS blimp from its mooring at the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland was a f inal straw for congressional appropriators. The blimp was one of two participating in the op- erational exercise to protect the capital region.
For several hours on Oct. 28, the pilotless, 242foot- long blimp sailed over Maryland and into Pennsylvania, disrupting commercial air traffic and clipping utility lines with its milelong tether.
An Army investigation found that JLENS support personnel had failed to load batteries to power an automatic def lation device that should have brought the blimp to the ground within two miles.
Durbin’s spokesman said that the operational exercise was an opportunity for JLENS to prove its usefulness, and that “it failed spectacularly.”
Durbin’s opposition to the funding was f irst reported Friday by Politico.
JLENS is short for Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System. It is designed to provide surveillance of low- altitude threats such as cruise missiles and drones.
In tests, the JLENS radar has struggled to track f lying objects and to distinguish friendly aircraft from potential threats.
A Times report published in September described how backers of JLENS at the Pentagon and at Raytheon maneuvered to keep taxpayer money f lowing to the problem- plagued program.
In late 2010, the secondranking Army leader — Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli — tried to kill JLENS. Chiarelli was trumped by the then- vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. James E. “Hoss” Cartwright, who backed plans for what became the operational exercise, a lifeline for the program.
Cartwright retired from the military in late 2011 — and f ive months later went on Raytheon’s payroll as a director. Other doubts about JLENS emerged Friday from two Maryland lawmakers who had staunchly backed the program.
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski ( D- Md.) issued a statement expressing “very grave reservations about both the program’s safety for local communities and its national security accomplishments.”
Rep. C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger ( D- Md.) said he too now opposed spending the additional $ 27.2 million to restart the exercise.