US Expands Lockheed Martin–Built Spy Blimps Over Caribbean

There’s no question that Western Hemisphere defense is back in the Trump 2.0 era. 

In fact, it’s a theme we’ve explained to readers throughout the year: the Pentagon’s strategy to reorient U.S. defense priorities away from endless wars in the Middle East and toward safeguarding the homeland and the Western Hemisphere as the world fractures into a dangerous bipolar state. This pivot is commonly referred to as “Monroe Doctrine 2.0.”

The focus has been squarely on the Caribbean Sea, particularly off the coast of Venezuela, where an unprecedented buildup of U.S. military assets is underway, including missile destroyers, 10,000 soldiers, 6,000 sailors, surveillance aircraft, and what may have even been a dry bomb run by B-1 bombers last month.

More interesting has been the expanded deployment of high-altitude surveillance blimps, equipped with Lockheed Martin L-88 radar systems that detect aircraft and/or vessels over hundreds of miles. This expansion of blimps is feeding the Caribbean Air and Marine Operations Center and other command-and-control hubs, giving U.S. forces real-time situational awareness across the region.

Defense Blog reports: 

The United States has intensified the use of its tethered aerostat radar system operating out of Lajas, Puerto Rico, expanding persistent airborne surveillance across the Caribbean amid growing regional security concerns.

The long-standing system, equipped with the Lockheed Martin–built Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS), has been flying more frequently in recent weeks, according to defense monitoring sources

Created for border security and counter-narcotics missions, the Puerto Rico TARS site now acts as a forward radar post, monitoring and expanding the U.S. military’s surveillance network, bolstering military, Homeland Security, and counter-smuggling operations in the region. This is much cheaper to operate than conventional patrol aircraft or warships.

In short, the expanded deployment of TARS is more evidence of bolstering hemispheric operations and provides an early-warning sentry for both narcotic and national security operations.