BASE TO HOST TESTS OF AIRBORNE LASER.

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services

As U.S. forces gather in the Persian Gulf for another possible showdown with Saddam Hussein, the Boeing Co. is developing a high-energy laser that could be fired from a 747 airplane to neutralize Iraq's Scud missiles and its storehouse of chemical and biological weapons.

Due to arrive at Edwards Air Force Base for testing starting next year, the system won't be ready for the current confrontation in the gulf. But sometime after the turn of the century, if everything goes as expected, the Air Force will have a small fleet of specially equipped 747s capable of protecting U.S. forces, along with allies like Israel, from missile attacks.

The idea is simple.

Take a 6,000-pound chemical laser and reduce its weight by almost two-thirds, using composite materials and plastics, so it fits in the passenger compartment of a 747. Lop off the plane's nose and replace it with a revolving turret from which a narrow laser beam could bore a hole in an enemy rocket 250 miles away.

Ideally, the laser beam would hit the rocket when it was still in its initial boost phase. If the rocket was carrying biological or chemical weapons, they would likely scatter on enemy soil.

``We see it as a deterrent to an enemy even launching such weapons,'' said Lt. Col. David Harrell, director of special projects in the Airborne Laser Office at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.

Paul Sherman, director of the Airborne Laser Joint Program Office for Boeing, was even more blunt in referring to Iraqi Scud missiles and the possibility they could be armed with biological or chemical weapons.

``If we hit that missile early enough, all of that (stuff) would fall back on them,'' Sherman said. ``The airborne laser could be a positive deterrent.''

Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and the House defense appropriations panel, supports the project, ``if we can demonstrate it will work,'' he said.

Although Harrell and Sherman are confident the airborne laser will work, technical and political questions remain.

No one is quite sure whether it is possible to fire a laser over such a distance and keep its energy beam focused through distortions in the atmosphere called ``optical turbulence.''

Andrew Koch, a senior research analyst with the Center for Defense Information, a Pentagon watchdog group, is among the skeptics.

``It's an unproven weapon, and there are serious questions about it,'' Koch said.

Moreover, critics say the airborne laser may violate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and Dicks suggested if it is deployed the U.S. might have to enter into new negotiations with the Russians.

The airborne laser also faces possible Pentagon infighting. As military budgets decrease, the fights between different defense programs become more intense. With Air Force leadership dominated by ``fighter jocks,'' some suggest the airborne laser is a lot more vulnerable to budget cuts than the next-generation F-22 jet fighter.

``I am supporting it,'' Dicks said. ``It could be useful in a gulf-like situation. We need to continue to work on it.''

The threat from missile attack is not limited to Iraq.

An estimated 25 to 30 countries have 10,000 to 11,000 short-range ballistic missiles, which are capable of carrying a warhead from Iraq to Israel or North Korea to Japan, Harrell said.

``They are a real threat out there and growing,'' he said. ``They are cheap to build, or you can go out and buy 15 missiles and three portable launches for about the cost of a jet fighter.''

Iraq's Scuds are actually old Soviet missiles, often manufactured in former Eastern Bloc nations. Harrell said there is also concern about the CSS-2, a Chinese-manufactured missile, that has been purchased by North Korea and other countries.

Hussein has used his Scuds before. During the Persian Gulf War, a Scud hit a U.S. military barracks, killing more than 30 soldiers. Dozens were launched at Israel, though none carried chemical or biological weapons.

``I can still remember watching CNN during Desert Storm as the first Scud hit Tel Aviv,'' Sherman said. ``I'll never forget the fright. That's what this (the airborne laser) could prevent.''

Boeing, along with a team which includes TRW and Lockheed Martin Corp., are in the middle of a five-year, $1.3 billion contract to develop the airborne laser. Current plans call for a test in 2002 to see if it can actually shoot down a missile.

``We won't put the naysayers to bed until we do that,'' Sherman said.

The contract also includes the purchase of two 747-400s, the first to be delivered next year.

As a result of lingering questions about optical turbulence, the Air Force has been conducting detailed studies of atmospheric conditions over the Persian Gulf and Northeast Asia, including the Korean peninsula and Japan.

``We aren't going to build something which won't work, but with 80 percent of the data in, we are comfortable with where we are,'' Harrell said.

Special infrared sensors which can detect a missile plume will be installed on the fuselage of the 747s.

While much of the information is secret, Harrell said under the worst case, with clouds to 40,000 feet, the computerized airborne laser will identify, track and be ready to fire within five seconds after a missile clears the clouds.

The system will be able to track multiple launches and fire the laser numerous times.

``We will be able to handle multiple launches,'' Sherman said, adding that even if a missile or two slips by, tracking information would be relayed to other weapons systems, such as the Patriot missile, which could then be fired.

The Boeing 747 was selected because it was big enough to hold the laser and could fly high enough, fully loaded, to successfully detect the missile launches.

The 747s will not carry other armaments, and the idea is for them to circle about 60 miles outside the range of enemy anti-aircraft systems. The planes could stay aloft for about 12 hours, though they would have to be refueled.

``The Air Force sees it as a revolutionary system, on the same track as the Manhattan Project, radar or stealth,'' Sherman said. ``This could change how we fight wars.''

Koch, however, said there are numerous problems with the airborne laser.

Because the 747 is essentially a ``giant sitting duck,'' Koch said it has to fly so far outside enemy air defenses that the range of its laser is limited.

With airspace over Iran, Turkey and Syria off limits, a 747 keeping an eye on Iraq would have to fly well out over the Persian Gulf, Koch said. Hussein would just have to move his missiles back so when he fired they would be out of range, Koch said, adding the airborne laser system can kill a missile only when it is in its boost phase.

Koch said optical distortions in the atmosphere remain a huge hurdle to overcome.

In addition, Koch said moisture in clouds can distort the beam and that's why the 747 has to fly at cloud top, or roughly 40,000 feet.

The Air Force plans to use Edwards as the home of the testing of the airborne laser program beginning in 1999. The program is expected to provide 200 jobs and pump about $11.1 million into the Antelope Valley economy over four years.

Edwards was chosen to host the program because of its flight-test background, access to test ranges and the availability of a test complex that will require minimal modification - the facility now used by the B-2 stealth bomber program, said Col. Dick Tebay.

Air Force officials plan to use a portion of the B-2 stealth bomber complex at Edwards' South Base to house the program. Renovation work to accommodate the program will cost about $34 million and will take a year to 15 months.

Renovation work is planned to begin in 1999. The aircraft will arrive in late 1999 to be prepared for testing.