Melmothtw
You missed the important bit with your highlighting. Let me redo it for you with my own underline:
technical issues that prevented its deployment
It was OPERATIONALLY non-deployable and they pulled the plug on it before they wasted anymore money on it as it was obviously never going to deliver what the snake oil salesmen had promised.
Finally, the HAV Airlander and the Northrop Grumman LEMV are the SAME airship, FFS! They bought it back from NG for £301,000 after NG had spent a bl00dy fortune on it - apparently it was a 'bargain'...
Northrop Grumman/HAV-Developed Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) Reappears as HAV Airlander - UAS VISION
People throwing their good money at this is as bad as the Vulcan to The Sky business - some people in the company will be lining their pockets and in 5 years time this will all be but a distant memory. As others have said, we'd be better off spending the money on Air Cadet gliders if you want to promote STEM in this country.
LJ