The Navy commissions its first “airship” in fifty years. Interesting to see a renewed interest in lighter-than-air aircraft in the Army (here, here, and here), Air Force (here and here), and now the Navy. The Navy’s airship appears to be the same blimp involved in the Deepwater Horizon response.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
One would think that the supposed jurnalists would at least find out whether or not it’s an “airship” or a “blimp” when writing articles, as there is a very big defference.
There is a difference between blimps and rigid airships (dirigibles or zeppelins). Airship is the term used in the referenced article (not my choice of words) but it is the general term that includes both rigid and non-rigid types.
Wikipedia says that “blimp” just refers to one type of airship, I suspect that back in the world war era it was used as a catch-all for airships in general but now days it just refers to an airship with no internal support. IMNSHO 😀
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blimp_(disambiguation)
I wonder if they are making resurgence as military aircraft because there is not really a lot of credible air to air threats in the world anymore? The United States dominates the air for the most part, the fragility of teh ships is not as significant as it would have been even 25 or 30 years ago.
Certainly seems to be the case in the systems that are designed for a Afghanistan type environment, but then the US military has done a lot of that sort of thing. In the right environment, why not.
Here is a bit of an update: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/massive-spy-blimp/
Information on the Air Force Program which is apparently being cancelled:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/06/deflated-mega-blimp/all/1
A report the Army’s lighter than air vehicle will be offered to India, along with statements about the current status of the Army’s plans (basically there are none). http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/ain-defense-perspective/2013-01-11/northrop-grumman-eyes-indian-market-delayed-lemv