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L-3 lands major contract to assist troops overseas

By Brad Kellar

Greenville – There's a name for the so called "mystery blimp" that was spotted over Greenville earlier this year. Blue Devil 2.

L-3 Communications just landed a $12 million contract to work on the air ship, which is designed to provide intelligence services in Afghanistan. The blimp began flying over the area in April. The Department of Defense announced the agreement Thursday.

According to www.wired.com, the Blue Devil Airship is an experimental program through the U.S. Air Force which hopes to eventually deploy an airship seven times the size of the Goodyear Blimp above Afghanistan carrying a multi intelligence payload designed to receive and relay information from and to multiple ground sources simultaneously.