AIRBORNE LASER PASSES INITIAL TEST.

Byline: JIM SKEEN

Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE -- The development of a flying laser weapon to destroy ballistic missiles hit a major milestone when it showed it could detect and track a target.

The Airborne Laser, a highly modified Boeing 747 based at Edwards Air Force Base, demonstrated it could find a flying target with a laser during two test missions in March. The tests were a major step toward proving a laser weapon can find and destroy ballistic missiles while they are still in the booster phase.

"We have a crawl, walk, run approach to Airborne Laser," said Col. John Daniels, the director of the airborne laser program. "Right now we're between crawling and walking."

The Airborne Laser tested its battle management system and its tracking laser system against a simulated missile -- a KC-135 dubbed "Big Crow" that was equipped with infrared heat lamps to simulate a missile plume. Several test firings were conducted during flights over the Pacific Ocean on March 15 and March 20.

The system detected the plume and the aircraft's nose turret turned toward the target and the tracking laser was fired.

Daniels did not disclose the distance between the two aircraft during the testing, saying only that it was "a significant distance."

"The laser actually tracked and ranged an airborne target," Daniels said. "This was a huge risk reduction for us."

The next major milestones ahead for the program will involve the firing of the tracking laser along with the firing of a surrogate weapon laser to simulate an actual missile shoot- down.

Program officials envision future Airborne Laser aircraft patrolling in pairs at more than 40,000 feet and inside friendly territory, scanning the horizon for missiles.

When a missile is detected, a set of lasers will track and illuminate it, and computers will measure the distance and calculate its course and direction.

A second high-energy laser, fired through the nose turret mounted on the aircraft, will destroy the missile. The weapon laser is made up of six modules, each weighing 4,500 pounds and about the size of a sport utility vehicle turned on its end.

The beam will heat an area about the diameter of a basketball on the missile's relatively fragile fuel-tank casing. The laser will weaken metal already under high pressure from the ignited rocket fuel, causing the missile to explode.

The weapon laser is being refurbished after being tested on the ground at Edwards. The plan now is to begin installing it on the aircraft this summer, with work likely to stretch into mid-2008.

A test against an actual ballistic missile is scheduled for 2009. If that test is successful, there are plans to begin development of another airborne laser aircraft.

Airborne Laser is one of the largest test programs at Edwards involving about 700 workers and three major contractors -- Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin.

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(ran in SAC edition onl) The Airborne Laser is being development to shoot donw ballistic missiles while they are still in the boost phase. Flight test work for the program is being done at Edwards Air Force Base.

Jim Shryne/Special to the Daily News