U.S. Navy Rigid Airships
The United States Navy’s experience with rigid airships is a story of ambition, achievement, and determination, but also politics, mistakes, and disasters.
USS Akron (ZRS-4 ) / USS Macon (ZRS-5)
Intended primarily to conduct long-range scouting in support of fleet operations, the rigid airship was uniquely qualified to perform that role at a time before long-range aircraft and advanced radar. Although they were relatively vulnerable to attack, and would have been rendered obsolete relatively quickly by advances in heavier-than-air technology, large rigid airships still offered capabilities otherwise unavailable in the years before World War II, and might even have provided early warning, and perhaps even deterrence, of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Unfortunately, despite the efforts of devoted and enthusiastic officers, the Navy’s rigid airship program was shadowed by political pressures which sometimes overwhelmed technical considerations, and by a series of mistakes and misjudgments in design and operation.
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The case for Naval Surveillance LTA craft;
The pirates of the western Indian ocean have created havok in the shipping industry. Their country of origin is perfectly placed to control the waters leading to and from the Suez Canal as well as the oil-rich Persian Gulf. Recent developments by the Somali pirates have extended their range off the Somali coast to halfway to India’s shores. NATO surface forces cannot control the random nature of these pirates. Here’s were a loitering, high duration aerial platform comes into use.
The airship offers unique over water capabilities proven by the US Navy in WW-2 anti-submarine escort work and Cold War radar picket duty. The K-ships and later larger craft all had high endurance capabilities over the steady conditions that oceans bring. The Indian ocean is good for airship activity with it’s warmer temperatures, and proximity to friendly bases in Diego Garcia make for deployment of LTA patrol craft to escort, search and locate pirate craft.
An airship can outrun any small pirate craft while maintaining a safe distance from the pirate’s weapons.
The airship can vector in force, or if need be, dispatch force directly to eliminate pirate activities in the region. Week long deployments are possible with the right sized airship. That will leave a narrower window of opportunity to the pirates to stalk, stage and attack their prey.
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