The Navy says this blimp will be used in a U.S.-British high- altitude environmental data collection project north of Kauai.
Classified Naval study
to float blimps near Kauai
The Navy plans to collect environmental data from a blimp high above the waters north of Kauai as part of a classified study.
Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, Pearl Harbor spokesman, would only say that the two white blimps now docked at Pearl Harbor will be part of a joint U.S.-British classified research project that will be done "over the next couple of months." The project is under the control of the Naval Air Systems Command.
The blimps will be tethered to a buoy and collect the environmental data from a height of 3,000 feet. They will be towed by a commercial barge from Pearl Harbor to the test sites, Davis said.
"The tests will be entirely passive," Davis added.
Environmentalists are at odds with the Navy over the use of active sonar to detect enemy submarines. Environmentalists and animal rights groups say the sonar is disrupting whales and other marine species.
