Eye-in-the-Sky Blimp Boosts Singapore’s Spying Ability

A missing airplane and a rise in piracy attacks off the coast of Singapore has prompted the city-state to boost surveillance efforts with a radar-equipped blimp over its skyline.

An unmanned helium-filled balloon the length of an Olympic-size pool will be held down by fortified ropes to float 600 meters (2,000 feet) above ground -- more than twice the height of Singapore’s tallest building, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement on its website.

“Both aviation and maritime domains have to be closely monitored in the light of the more recent developments, for instance the MH370,” said Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Read more