Airborne Laser program looks ahead to '04 test.

The anti-missile system known as the Airborne Laser is receiving several upgrades, in preparation for a 2004 flight test. While the system--based on a Boeing 747 jet--is designed to shoot down long-range ballistic missiles, the technology also could be adapted for smaller platforms, for tactical applications, officials said.

"The next step is to take this technology and take these elements and put it on a smaller platform," said Air Force Col. Ellen Pawlikowski, program manager for the Airborne Laser. Possible applications for ABL in the future are advanced tactical lasers, she said during a missile-defense seminar on Capitol Hill.

The ABL is being developed at Kirtland Air Force Base, in New Mexico. The $11 billion program recently completed modifications on the 747 jet, which just completed a flight test, said officials. Engineers recently finished building the beam control system, Pawlikowski said, providing a significant step toward reaching the capability of destroying missiles in their boostphase.

"Between next year and the summer of 2004, we will put the system together on the airplane and fly it with the ultimate objective of shooting down a missile by December 2004," she said.

The ABL flew for the first time in July, completing a 120-minute rest. The laser part of the aircraft is not yet operational. The test was done simply to assess aerodynamic performance and systems operation.

"We have taken the airplane and given it a brand new nose. ...Through that nose, or what we call technically the 'turret,' is where the high-energy laser will actually fire from the airplane," Pawlikowski said. "This turret has to be able to move, roam and rotate. We tested that. It works like we expected it to."

The aircraft will fly later this year to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., where its tracking and high-energy laser system will be installed. "This system is one of the most complex engineering challenges ever undertaken in an aircraft," said Scott Fancher, Boeing's ABL program director.

The ABL team, comprised of prime contractors Boeing, Lockheed Martin and TRW, is developing the airborne boost-phase missile defense system under the direction of the Missile Defense Agency. The system will use a TRW-developed megawatt-class chemical laser aboard the aircraft to shoot down missiles in their boost phase of flight. Boeing is responsible for developing the surveillance battle-management system, integrating the weapon system and supplying the modified aircraft. Lockheed Martin is developing the beam control/fire control system, which will acquire the target, then accurately point and fire the laser. TRW is providing the complete chemical oxygen-iodine laser system.

New Capabilities

Pawlikowski said that one of the most exciting features in ABL is "a brand new belly on the airplane," filled with titanium, so that the aircraft cart withstand the temperature of the exhaust created as the laser is fired.

There are also new cameras loaded on the aircraft. These are "highly sensitive cameras that are providing the orders of magnitude with more sensitivity than ever provided before. So we can actually see what those lasers are going to be able to provide to us," Pawlikowski said.

A key component for the airborne laser is the coating over the glass that houses the laser. The sass needs heavy layers of impermeable industrial coating so it can withstand the heat of the laser.

"We have successfully coated our first optic at LPC [Laser Power Corporation, a subcontractor for Lockheed Martin], in their large chamber," she said.

A chamber is a "clean room," a sterile room where a coating can be cured, with heat, vacuum or other means, said Lori Reichart, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson. Large chambers are very rare, she said.

"The glass that helps us to steer and control this laser has to be protected, [so] these coatings are critical. That chamber, by the way, was actually purchased by the Space-Based Laser Program. ... We share each other's lessons and even each other's hardware," she said.

"Then we have the workhorse that actually delivers the power--the high energy laser," Pawlikowski said. Engineers at Edwards Air Force Base are taking the six modules of the high energy laser and "laying them all out in an old 747 fuselage so that we can make sure it all fits," she said.

"By this time next year, I hope to tell you that we have produced the full power out of those six laser modules. When we have finished building and testing those modules and have finished at Sunnyvale (the Lockheed Martin facility in California), we will take those two big pieces and move them onto the actual airborne laser aircraft."

Looking ahead, she said, "It is important that as we progress forward, we are not just demonstrating technology. We are beyond that. The key element now is not to say 'Look, we got photons out of a laser.' The key element is that we put those photons in hardware, and that hardware on a plane. We have demonstrated the ability to put it where we want it, and provide that global reach the Air Force wants."