Army's long-endurance airship days away from flight testing

The Army is preparing a massive airship outfitted with enough surveillance gear to do the work of a dozen unmanned aerial vehicles for service in Afghanistan, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), which would fly at altitudes exceeding 20,000 feet, is designed to stay on station above an area of high enemy activity for weeks at a time during which time it would intercept phone calls, shoot full-motion video and track the movement of insurgents, the story said.

Test flights of the LEMV, which is months behind schedule, are expected to occur perhaps as early as next week at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., the story said.