The Military Utility of Airships

By Keith Hayward
18 Jun 2004

Lighter-than-air (LTA) vehicles should be taken seriously as military or para-military platforms. The airship has a long and honourable history, and the last dedicated military airship was retired as late as the early 1960s. In the 21^st century it might seem rather perverse to recall a technology which may appear to have reached its pinnacle in the 1930s. In the context of diminishing defence budgets, when existing force structures are under severe scrutiny, adding the LTA option may also have few supporters. Yet the radical changes in the military environment following the end of the Cold War that are demanding cost-effective equipment for peacekeeping and other low intensity operations may be precisely when military planners need to consider radical alternatives. In the first instance, LTA technology has moved on since the age of the Zeppelin. Second, airships have intrinsic characteristics of value to contemporary military operations. And finally, for the cost-conscious planner, their benefits are cheaply bought. On the other hand, there are a number of problems associated with military LTA, and the value of airships, in particular as military vehicles, has to be carefully considered. The airship community is small, but intensely loyal to their craft and prone to over-sell their case. The aim of this Whitehall Paper is to consider, without prejudice, the utility of airships in the modern military environment.

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