AIRBORNE LASER TESTS SET EDWARDS WILL USE MODIFIED 747 FOR INITIAL GROUND TRIALS.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - A laser-armed 747 capable of swatting down Scud-type missiles is getting ready for testing at Edwards Air Force Base.

Called the world's first laser-armed combat aircraft and described as part of an approaching revolution in weaponry, the airborne laser's testing will lead up to a simulated shoot-down of a Scud missile in December 2004.

``This machine will change the face of warfare, perhaps like gunpowder did a thousand years ago, perhaps like the airplane did 100 years ago,'' said Maj. Gen. Doug Pearson, Edwards' commander.

The $1.1 billion program is aimed at developing a weapon capable of destroying enemy missiles with an invisible beam of energy, in response to worldwide threats posed by missiles like the Scuds launched by Iraq against Israeli and American forces during the Gulf War.

Firing short, intense bursts of energy from a laser mounted in a special turret in its nose, the plane will blow apart ballistic missiles shortly after launch, while they are far from their targets.

The airborne laser testing was under way independently of the national anti-missile effort announced last week by President George W. Bush. That system, which Bush proposes to have in place in a limited fashion in two years, would use ground- and ship-based interceptor missiles to knock down enemy missiles heading toward the United States.

The airborne laser, in fact, in its early days was part of President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative and survived a 1992 cutback that killed off efforts deemed too fanciful to work anytime soon.

If the Edwards tests are successful, a fleet of seven or so laser-armed 747s could be created to fly to international hot spots. Patrolling high enough to see over clouds, the planes would fire their lasers to shoot down missiles soon after launch, while they are still over enemy territory.

The Edwards airplane - designated YAL-1A, for airborne laser, with Y the Air Force designation for prototype aircraft - probably will not be used in combat.

However, it is intended to pave the way for the nation's first flying laser weapon system. Program officials said they expect an operational airborne laser to take to the skies sometime in the coming decade.

During combat, airborne laser aircraft would patrol in pairs at more than 40,000 feet and inside friendly territory, scanning the horizon for missiles. When a missile is detected, a tracking laser beam will illuminate it, and computers will measure the distance and calculate its course and direction.

A second high-energy laser, fired in a three- to five-second burst from the nose turret, will destroy the missile.

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.

``People think of laser weapons as having a lot of energy,'' said Maj. Jim Rothenflue, the program's director of engineering. ``It's not a lot of energy. It's about precision.''

The high-energy laser will be fueled by the same chemicals found in hair bleach and Drano - hydrogen peroxide and potassium hydroxide. Those chemicals will be combined with chlorine gas and water.

The Edwards testing will include ground testing of the laser system as well as flight tests of various systems, including target tracking. The highlight of the testing will be an attempt to shoot down a Scud-like missile in late 2004, possibly over the Pacific Ocean or the White Sands missile range in New Mexico.

For the laser testing, the Air Force spent $22 million to build more than 60,000 square feet of laboratory space at Edwards, including a facility capable of simulating conditions for weapons firing at 40,000 feet above the Earth.

One of the test buildings, the Systems Integration Laboratory, has a 747 nose sticking out of a hole in the front wall and the rear of a fuselage sticking out its back wall.

When the building was originally being planned, Air Force officials expected to build a mockup of an aircraft fuselage for ground testing the laser system. As the program progressed, however, the Air Force was able to acquire a 747 jetliner fuselage from the Mojave Airport, allowing the program to save the cost of having to build a mockup.

The only drawback was that the real fuselage was longer than the planned mockup fuselage and longer than the building.

Ground testing of the lasers is scheduled for late spring or early summer of next year.

Air Force officials say 30 nations have ballistic missiles comparable to the Iraqi Scud - one of which killed 27 American troops in a Saudi Arabian barracks during the Gulf War - and that there are more than 10,000 such weapons in existence.

Lt. Col. Keesey Miller, director of the Airborne Laser Integrated Test Force at Edwards, said he gets asked about the push to develop the system.

Miller noted that North Korea tested a missile two years ago capable of delivering a warhead onto American soil; in recent days, a shipment of Scud missiles was detected bound for Yemen; and North Korea recently announced it had a nuclear program.

``Those facts told me we need to keep our focus,'' Miller said.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, drawing, box

Photo:

(1) Edwards AFB personnel gather around a modified 747 that will be tested for use in an airborne laser defense system.

(2) A specially modified Boeing 747 arrives at Edwards AFB on Thursday for a series of airborne laser defense systems tests.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News

Drawing:

AIRBORNE LASER (ABL) PROTOTYPE BOEING 747-400F

Jon Gerung/Staff Artist

Box:

LASER DEFENSE

SOURCE: Missile Defense Agency