Posted on 11/15/2004 12:18:57 PM PST by rawhide
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM Monday, November 15, 2004 The United States has reported a successful ground-based test of an airborne laser meant to intercept ballistic missiles.
The Missile Defense Agency said the megawatt-class laser underwent a successful test on Nov. 10. The Pentagon agency said the laser was operated in a ground-based demonstration at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
Officials said this marked the first time that a directed energy weapon meant for use in a Boeing 747 aircraft has been demonstrated.
The test, which lasted a fraction of a second, involved the simultaneous firing of all six laser modules and associated optics that comprise the Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser. Officials said the modules,built by Northrop Grumman, performed as expected.
Officials said the test was conducted in the framework of the Airborne Laser project. "It was the first time that multiple modules of the powerful laser had ever been fired while linked together as a single unit," the Missile Defense Agency said in a statement on Nov. 10. "In the test, the laser light produced by the six modules was fired into a wall of metal called a calorimeter or beam dump. The temperature rise of the metal was used to validate that laser power was generated."
The ABL program has undergone a two-year delay in wake of the failure to develop a laser weapon that could be fitted into the nose of a Boeing 747-400F aircraft. The Pentagon has acknowledged that the laser system developed in 2002 was too heavy for flight.
The ABL, a program expected to reach $4 billion through 2008, has been designed to autonomously detect, track and destroy enemy ballistic missiles.
The high-power laser was meant to focus a basketball-sized spot of heat that can destroy a missile in the boost-phase of launch at a range of hundreds of kilometers.
Officials said the ABL was meant to intercept ballistic missiles from such countries as Iran and North Korea. Israel has expressed interest in the ABL and was said to be seeking to cooperate with the United States in a scaled-down version of the program.
The Nov. 10 test was said to have verified the integration, operation and control of six laser modules in flight configuration. Officials said the laser would be installed in the 747, integrated with the beam control/fire control system and eventually tested in flight.
Officials said the ABL prototype, termed YAL-1A, has resumed preparations for its first flight test. In December 2002, the aircraft was removed from service for modifications to the airframe to ensure the installation of the laser beam control system.
In early 2005, officials said, the ABL Track Illuminator Laser and Beacon Illuminator Laser would be installed. This would be followed by a flight of the YAL-1A that would include the test of the full beam control system.
At a later stage, the Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser would be installed on the Boeing 747, followed by additional ground and flight tests. Officials said no date has been set for the first ABL attempt to intercept a ballistic missile.
"Wheres the frickin lasers!"- Doctor Evil
GOOD!!!!
Hah! The "Allen-Parsons Project" lives!!
Basketball sized? That sounds Perfect for ZOTTING the 42 fireant mounds here on the property.
Pass this on to Dale Gribble please.
Hmmmm. Can someone verify something for me.
I occasionally read Lev Nasorov over at Newsmax.com.
He seems to think that China is developing a
nano-tech-based weapon system that will obsolete
nuclear warheads. I think he is referring to
ICBMs/MIRVs, etc, trackable on radar. He is usually
very vague and my eamils to him have gone unaswered.
Is he referring to a space platform-based system such as
we might see w/ the aforementioned laser? Also,
might it be in a similar vein to the particle beam
systems tested in the 70s by the USSR but found to be
lacking?
My point here is that any countermeasure that
could neutralize nuclear throwweight, whether
light-based, matter-based or other, would serve
to obsolete long-range nukes. OTOH, unless one
had absolute visibility anywhere and everywhere,
short-range and radar-transparent carriers might
escape and remain effective.
I'd appreciate any headsup.
MV
Already posted.
bttt
I hadn't seen it then....I see this report....
The only nanotech weapon I know of is the "gray sludge". It is composed of nanites that replicate themselves using the material around them. Unchecked, they could destroy a city in short order, and the only defense against these little buggers IS a nuke, or an EMP generator.
This is all just science fiction right now, though. I wouldn't worry too much about it...
So glad our President is interested in protecting our families and children with systems like this...unlike that commie RATS who vote against EVERY one of them.
Too heavy for a 747. That is some major league generator. Must be a city sized powerplant. Even C bs HQ and sats must be within range.
So, we had to nuke the city in order
to save it! bwahahahahahahahahaaha
Or else its a high-altitude burst
in order to maximize EMP coverage.
MV
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