Airborne Laser compensation.

The Airborne Laser (ABL), which is currently under development by a Boeing-led team that includes Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, recently completed a successful flight test that demonstrated the weapon's ability to track an airborne target and, compensating for atmospheric turbulence, then fire a surrogate to its 'soon-to-be-tested' high-energy laser. The flight/firing test was conducted from a modified Boeing 747-400, which used infrared sensors and the system's track illuminator laser to find and track an instrumented target board mounted on an NC-135E test aircraft. The aircraft fired its beacon laser at the target aircraft to allow the ABL to measure and compensate for laser beam distortion caused by the atmosphere, then fired its surrogate high-energy laser to simulate a missile shoot-down. The test demonstrated the complete engagement sequence with the exception of the beacon illuminator laser (Bill). Successive tests will demonstrate the sequence using the Bill laser system.