Breaking news on the Airborne Laser
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Airborne Laser shoots down a ballistic missile
The Boeing Airborne Laser Testbed successfully shot down a Scud missile-like target at 2044 PST off the California coast, a landmark achievement in the $6 billion program's 16-year history.
The ALTB, a 747-400 freighter modified with a 1MW-class chemical laser and a 1.5m telescope mounted on the nose, used onboard sensors to acquire the short-range ballistic target shortly after launch from an offshore, mobile platform, the Missile Defense Agency says in a press release.
The ALTB then fired a low-energy laser to measure atmospheric disturbances and make corrections. Finally, the ALTB fired the high-energy laser, which destroyed the ballistic missile within two minutes of target launch.
The test marked the first attempt by the ALTB to shoot-down a ballistic missile powered by liquid fuel.
Boeing continuing to work on YAL
A Boeing official says the YAL-1 Airborne Laser (ABL) will seek to pre-empt critics of the programme's first shootdown test scheduled later this year by...
USAF Needs Airborne Laser
Former Air Force Chief of Staff, retired Gen. Larry Welch, told lawmakers last week that he believes work on the Airborne Laser, which some say is sure to be cut in this ever-tougher budget climate, should continue but there are other advanced technologies that need investment.
During a March 26 House Armed Services strategic forces panel hearing, Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said, "I'm very concerned about Airborne Laser," since this Administration may cancel it. He added that he thinks "that's an extremely dangerous thought because the laser technology, I believe, is to missile defense what the computer chip was to the computer industry."
Welch, who currently is president and chief executive officer of Institute for Defense Analyses and was part of a Congressionally directed study on the future roles and missions of the Missile Defense Agency, said in response, "There are huge technological issues associated with effective laser systems, and while the Airborne Laser, in my view, is something that we need to have, we need to be flying, and we need to be learning about it, but there are also advanced technologies that would make a system order of magnitude more effective, and we need to be making investments in those technologies."
Airborne-laser completes its first static test firing
The Airborne Laser (ABL) was conceived to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles in the early stages of their flight.
In September, engineers fired the high-energy laser into a calorimeter aboard the aircraft. But this is the first time the beam has been fired along the full length of the 747.
"The team has now completed the two major milestones it hoped to accomplish in 2008, keeping ABL on track to conduct the missile shoot-down demonstration planned for next year," said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems.
Onwards and upwards
The latest ground test was carried out by the US Missile Defence Agency at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
A laser beam travelled the length of the aircraft at one billion km/h (670 million mph).
It raced from the aft (back) section that houses the laser, through the beam control and fire control system, and out through the nose-mounted turret.
The high energy laser is fired from a turret in the aircraft's nose
When the laser beam emerged from the aircraft, it was captured by a diagnostic system which also provides simulated targets for the laser.
The next step is to carry out some long duration firings of the laser.
"Once we complete those tests, we will begin demonstrating the entire weapon system in flight," said Michael Rinn, Boeing vice president and programme director for the ABL.
The ABL is designed to illuminate an enemy missile with a laser tracking beam, while computers measure its distance and calculate its course and direction.
After acquiring and locking on to the target, a second, high-power laser fires a three-to-five-second burst from the turret in the 747's nose.
The beam heats up the pressurised fuel tank of the outbound missile and causes it to rupture, destroying the missile.
YAL-1 may do more than shoot down ICBMs
The YAL-1 Airborne Laser (ABL) is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles, but Boeing is looking to expand its portfolio to include more conventional targets, such as aircraft and cruise missiles.
"We have begun to do some work in simulation to show that there are capabilities for the weapon system in the future, and there are some changes that need to be made because we are optimised for ballistic missiles," says Mike Rinn, Boeing's ABL programme manager.
Boeing later clarified that the multi-mission capability is being developed within the company's internal research and defence budget.
Expanding the ABL's missions would require adapting sensors designed to detect the plume from a boosting rocket motor, as aircraft and cruise missiles have significantly lower thermal signatures. Rinn also says a multi-mission ABL would have to tap off-board radar platforms, such as the Boeing E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft.
With budgets for missile defence under special scrutiny, Boeing is also still hoping to maintain current plans to start developing a second ABL platform in FY2012. "It's important that we keep this momentum going for this critical technology that the USA has developed and move this into a second tail as soon as we can," Rinn says.
But the programme's long-term funding status is not secure. The YAL-1 faces a critical test in the third quarter of next year, when it is scheduled to attempt its first in-flight shootdown of a ballistic target. "I'd be foolish if I said it wasn't that important," Rinn says. "Even though we have brought down the risk with all the parts of the weapon system, there's nothing like flaming wreckage there to show the world that this is viable and that it works."
The MDA source agrees about the test's significance. Asked whether the agency supports funding to develop a second aircraft, he replies: "That's not going to be determined until after we have the shootdown."
On 24 November, Boeing completed the first ground firing of a fully integrated weapons system aboard the Boeing 747-based YAL-1. The 1MW-class beam powered by a chemical-oxygen-iodine laser was fired into a range diagnostics device and dumped into a calorimeter.
Boeing has not yet added ammonia to the mixture, which is necessary for a long-duration beam firing test. Those ground tests are scheduled to begin in late December or early January, Rinn says.