Officials Map Out Test Milestones for Airborne Laser

Space.com ^ | March 22nd, 2006 | Jeremy Singer

[phantomworker]

Clever! Zap-ping, zap-powie!

[phantomworker]

That's why there are escorts.

[phantomworker]

Maybe something a little less expensive and more disposable?

[Flightdeck]

"doing it on a moving NKC-135, the test can be repeated many times."

OK, but doens't a missile move slightly faster than a KC-135?

[ArrogantBustard]

They're testing the adaptive optics and atmospheric correction system. For initial tests, getting lots of data in a variety of conditions would seem more important (to me) than getting the data from a fast-moving target.

[SENTINEL]

""How did they plan to protect the 747? The way the article desribes it it would seem difficult to protect the plane against air to air or gound to air missle attack."

Distance and Airpower. F-22 maybe?"

The aircraft is designed to destroy missiles with a laser. It can defend itself.

[MonroeDNA]

Speed is not an issue at all, for a laser guiding system. It can turn the mirros fast enough to sweep a path from the north star to the moon in a heartbeat. If you took a hand mirror and reflected the light to the east, and then to the west, how fast would it take you?

What is hard is to predict what atmospheric distortion and diffusion will do to a high powered pulse.

Basically, atmospheric conditions distort and diffuse the path of all electro magnetic energy, including light, and lasers.

Laser energy will be bent, and diffused, traveling through the atmosphere. Bending and diffusion are seperate problems. Bending is a twisted path, which changes with energy (due to the interaction with interveneing particles--air). Diffusion is the scattering of the beam, like a spray, also due to interaction with particles.

I think that what you do is measure the bending atmospheric distortion with one laser, use another to blow a hole through it (getting rid of the diffusion), and then use the main one to travel down the atmospheric hole with a mighty pulse.

Measure the path, open the path, send the big kahuna down the path.

Then again, what do I know.

[Yo-Yo]

What with birdstrikes, hail, and insects, you have to question the wisdom of putting that turret in the nose as opposed to the tail.

[EQAndyBuzz]

"How did they plan to protect the 747?"

Make it a stealth 747.

[subterfuge]

How did they plan to protect the 747?

It's probably equiped with IRCM systems. Infrared Counter Measures. All Israili commercial jets have them, but they are expensive.

[Little Ray]

I wonder what an ABL could do fighters? Could it knock 'em down beyond missile range or would the atmosphere attenuate the beam too much?

[backhoe]

-Israel's Arrow Anti-Missile System and the THEL...--

[in hoc signo vinces]

And a fighter escort...similar to a JSTARS aircraft. Typical a flight of F-16s babysit such aircraft while in the air.

[phantomworker]

Thank you for the reference!

[Joe Brower]

Ping!

[backhoe]

Thanks for looking- I am hoping there's a lot going on behind the scenes that is not mentioned.

[Jeff Head]

Uh...if it can shoot down ICBM's in boost phase at long range, my guess is it could protect itself to some degree and engage a flight of adversarial aircraft well before they could engage it.

Having said that, I would also guess that due to the cost and value of this platform, that they would have some F-22's nearby escorting this aircraft and probably have a tanker in support to ensure they had the "legs" to do the job as long as it was on station.

[Hank Rearden]

What with birdstrikes, hail, and insects, you have to question the wisdom of putting that turret in the nose as opposed to the tail.

I doubt any of those are a factor at the altitudes at which this turret will be exposed to the outside world. Plus, at the tail you have turbulence and engine heat to mess up the view.

[Yo-Yo]

I've worked on Pave Tack FLIR pods for F-111s. Those pods rotated completely inside of the F-111's bomb bay when not in use, and the lens pointed straight up when in standby, and you'd be amazed at how many dings it still ended up getting in it.

I realize the pod will rotate 180 degrees when not in use, but it's still right there out front like any other radome waiting for hail or birdstrike damage.

[null and void]

Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines...