EDWARDS JOINS LASER TEST TEAM TRIALS TO START IN `02.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - Gearing up for tests of a 747 fitted with a laser gun for destroying enemy missiles, the Air Force is spending $22 million to build laboratories, including a facility capable of simulating conditions for weapons firing at 40,000 feet above the Earth.

The Air Force is building more than 60,000 square feet of new facilities to house the program, which will arrive at Edwards Air Force Base next year.

``We're putting in place at Edwards what I would call a world-class ability to test lasers,'' said Col. Ellen Pawlikowski, the airborne-laser program director.

Responding to worldwide threats posed by missiles like the Iraqi Scud, the $1.1 billion program is aimed at developing a weapon capable of swatting missiles out of the sky with an invisible beam of energy.

The laser test program includes a modified Boeing 747-400F freighter that mounts a chemical laser in a nose turret. Firing short, intense bursts of energy, the laser is meant to blow apart ballistic missiles while they are far from their targets.

The aircraft itself has gone through all the major structural modifications at a plant in Wichita, Kan. The aircraft will conduct a series of flight tests in Kansas before coming to Edwards.

The Air Force is also conducting the test firings of the first of six laser modules at a laboratory in San Juan Capistrano. That module will be sent to Edwards in 2002.

``It's an exciting time for us,'' Pawlikowski said. ``We've got hardware coming through the door. We went from designs on paper to a lot of hardware.''

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 laser, fired in a three- to five-second burst from the nose turret, is meant to destroy the missile while it's still over enemy territory.

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.

Unlike the colorful lasers depicted in science fiction shows, the Air Force laser's beam will be invisible to the human eye.

Immediately after the Persian Gulf War, the Defense Department began looking for an anti-missile system more effective than the Patriot, which was an anti-aircraft missile modified to shoot down missiles.

During the Persian Gulf War, the Patriot missile was heralded as a great Scud missile killer, with program officials boasting of success rates of 80 percent or higher. But a congressional investigation after the war showed those claims were greatly exaggerated, with one study stating the Patriot had an intercept rate of less than one out of 10.

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.

After a number of studies looking at technical hurdles, a $1.1 billion contract was awarded in November 1996 to a team composed of Boeing, TRW and Lockheed Martin to develop the airborne laser.

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 2003.

The components of the system have been in various stages of development for several years. The Air Force first began looking at laser weapon systems in the mid-1970s.

``The science has been there,'' Pawlikowski said. ``The challenge is the integration of all these systems into an airplane.''

Pawlikowski said she expects an operational airborne laser to take to the skies sometime in the coming decade.

Edwards will likely play a role in the development of the system for several years. Testing of the first aircraft will likely stretch into 2004 and Edwards will probably be involved with the development of a follow-up system.

``I see us at Edwards for quite a few years,'' Pawlikowski said.

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Photo:

A drawing shows how a plane fitted with a laser could shoot down incoming enemy missiles.