Utah Wing has made available for sale to collectors a limited quantity of patches commemorating the wing's flight support mission to the US Army's Joint Land-attack Elevated Netted Sensor (JLENS) radar system. This mission ran for 5 years, supporting systems integration testing for the JLENS system--the first time Civil Air Patrol has been employed in development testing of a major Department of Defense weapons system. JLENS is an over-the-horizon surveillance and fire control solution designed to detect and defeat the battlefield threat of cruise missiles. The system applies one of the earliest uses of aviation--lighter-than-air semi-rigid "blimps" with cutting-edge radar technology to loft the radar arrays high into the sky, giving defensive systems a threat detection range of hundreds of miles.
Utah Wing flew over 120 sorties and more than 500 flight hours in support of this mission, contributing a total of over 3200 volunteer hours to the effort. The mission was featured on the front cover of CAP's Volunteer magazine.
The patch was designed by CAP Lt Col Matt Johnson, a former commercial artist and graphic designer who has designed several patches for CAP use, including the official emblems for the Utah and New Hampshire wings. The patch features the elevated aerostats used to carry the radar systems aloft, along with a CAP Cessna T182 Turbo Skylane and symbolism representing several of the flight profiles flown by CAP aircrews on this mission. The National Commander's Unit Citation awarded to the entire Utah Wing for its performance on this mission is featured at bottom center.
100% of the proceeds from sales of this patch will go to the Utah Wing.
