The 243-foot-long helium-filled blimp is part of a $2.7 billion project called JLENS that has become the poster child for, ahem, runaway military spending and surveillance.

Between midnight and 2 a.m.

Planes are scheduled to fly over D.C. tonight and tomorrow as part of a military exercise.

Seeing and hearing jets fly over the District is nothing new for Washington residents. That said, you’d be excused from checking out the headline on this AP item — “Military training flights soaring over region” — and simply moving along. But then you’d miss this little nugget of information!

A small plane was redirected to Annapolis this morning after entering restricted airspace around the city. At approximately 11:50 a.m. two U.S. Coast Guard helicopters intercepted the plane and diverted it, where the pilot met with local law enforcement, according to NORAD. A similar incident happened on Monday where another plane was allowed to continue on to its destination….

Some more planned fighter jet training exercises will take place over D.C.’s restricted airspace on Wednesday. NORAD has scheduled two Civil Air Patrol Cessnas, two Air Force F-16s and a Coast Guard helicopter to train between midnight and 6 a.m. overnight, plus a second daytime exercise between 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, which will include one Lear jet, one Cessna and one F-16. The exercises are designed to simulate various situations in which…

Another “don’t panic” flyover warning to tell you about. The North American Aerospace Defense Command, better known as NORAD, sent out a press release earlier today announcing that a pair of fighter jets will make passes over the District in the predawn hours on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings this week. The two-day exercise, being called Falcon Virgo, is made up of a series of training flights designed to hone NORAD’s intercept and identification operations. Two…