JLENS is a tethered aerostat system consisting of two 27.5 meter (90 foot) long helium-filled balloons connected to a ground station by cables. The system is designed to carry payloads of up to 450 kilograms (1,000 pounds), including electro-optical/infrared cameras and synthetic aperture radar. JLENS was developed by Raytheon Company under contract to the United States Army.
The first test flight of JLENS took place in December 2009 from Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, USA. Following successful completion of the test program, JLENS was deployed to the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico for operational testing. In December 2015, JLENS completed its final operational test and was declared ready for deployment.
In 2016, the US Army announced that it would deploy two JLENS systems, each consisting of two tethered aerostats, to provide continuous surveillance coverage over the National Capital Region (NCR) against potential cruise missile and unmanned aerial vehicle threats. The aerostats are operated by soldiers from the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade based at Fort Meade, Maryland.
JLENS has also been proposed as a possible solution for providing persistent maritime surveillance coverage in support of anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden.