Airborne Laser Team Begins Laser Activation Tests

(Source: Boeing Co.; issued May 28, 2008)

ST. LOUIS --- The Boeing Company, industry teammates and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency achieved another significant milestone for the Airborne Laser (ABL) missile defense program this month by completing the first laser activation testing on the ground at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

"ABL's weapon system integration team has done a great job preparing the high-energy laser for activation testing, which will ensure each laser subsystem is brought on line sequentially and safely," said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems. "Laser installation and the start of laser activation move the program a giant step closer to ABL's missile shoot-down demonstration planned for 2009."

The final plumbing and wiring installations will be completed in the coming weeks. All major components of the weapon system, including the battle management system, laser components, and beam control/fire control system, were installed earlier.

Laser activation testing is a methodical process to ensure ABL's high-energy chemical laser has been properly integrated aboard the aircraft and is ready to produce enough power to destroy a ballistic missile. The tests first flow water or other inert substances through the laser to verify its integrity. Next, the laser's chemicals flow through the laser to confirm sequencing and control.

When the activation tests are complete, ground firings of the laser will occur, followed by flight tests of the entire ABL weapon system. The test phase will culminate in an airborne intercept test against a ballistic missile in 2009.

The ABL aircraft consists of a modified Boeing 747-400F whose back half holds the high-energy laser, designed and built by Northrop Grumman. The aircraft's front half contains the beam control/fire control system, developed by Lockheed Martin, and the battle management system, provided by Boeing.

Boeing is the prime contractor for ABL, which will provide speed-of-light capability to destroy all classes of ballistic missiles in their boost phase of flight. ABL's speed, precision and lethality also have potential for other missions, including destroying air-to-air, cruise and surface-to-air missiles.

Few Companies, People To Sustain ABL Technology

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The defense industrial base for one of the Pentagon’s most important missile defense programs is “thin” because there are so few companies involved in much of the highly technical optics work, according to senior Airborne Laser program officials. Much of the technology has no or few civilian applications.

For example, only one company, Xinetics Inc of Devens, Mass. makes the highly sensitive “deformable” optics used in the ABL laser, according to Mike Rinn, vice president and program director for ABL. Rinn spoke to me after a Friday presentation on the ABL sponsored by the Marshall Institute.

Air Force Col. Robert McMurry, the Missile Defense Agency’s program manager for ABL, told the gathering that the industrial base was “thin,” quickly backing off an initial description of it as “fragile.”

On top of the very short list of US companies making these mirrors, there are a “handful” of companies that specialize in the coatings for large optics and the number of people who know about these technologies is quite small and they are mostly older employees moving rapidly to retirement, Boeing’s Rinn said. His company is training people as “backup.”

Why does this industrial base matter, aside from the possibly self-serving interest Boeing has in urging that more ABLs be built to preserve the industrial base? (Bear in mind each operational ABL plane is likely to cost between $1 billion and $2 billion and four are required for effective operations in a theater.) Lasers are likely to be an integral part of the country’s military in the future, though they may be solid state lasers, unlike the ABL’s chemical laser. Deformable optics are likely to be critical in developing improved lasers.

McMurry also offered a schedule of upcoming program milestones. ABL should begin ground testing of the laser in the next “few months.” Probably the most significant event will be the full firing of the laser – integrated inside the highly modified 747 airplane – at a calorimeter, a device used to measure the intensity of a laser. If successful, that should lead to a firing of the laser while in flight possibly in August next year, McMurry said.