TRW Laser Module for Team ABL Meets Airborne Laser Performance Requirements.

REDONDO BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 19, 1996--Team ABL -- Boeing, TRW (NYSE:TRW) and Lockheed Martin -- Monday announced that a TRW-built high-energy laser has met the performance requirements needed for the team to build a megawatt-class laser that meets the operational requirements of the Air Force's Airborne Laser (ABL) system.

The successful tests, completed Aug. 6 at TRW's Capistrano Test Site near San Clemente, Calif., highlight the technical maturity of airborne laser technology and provide a solid technical basis for the Air Force to proceed with the development of its revolutionary, 747-based theater missile defense system.

The tests, which measured laser output power and chemical efficiency, involved TRW's Baseline Demonstration Laser (BDL-2), a several-hundred-kilowatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) developed by the company on its own funding.

BDL-2 is a full-power, functional prototype of the "building block" laser module that Boeing-led Team ABL has proposed using to build the full-scale ABL system laser. COIL is the laser technology selected for the ABL program.

"The successful BDL-2 performance demonstrations are proof that the ABL program is ready to proceed into the program definition and risk reduction (PDRR) phase," said Joanne Maguire, vice president and general manager of TRW's Space & Technology Division.

The ABL system is designed to shoot down theater ballistic missiles in the highly vulnerable boost phase of flight while the missiles are still over their launch areas. TRW Space & Electronics Group is providing the laser for Team ABL, one of two contractor teams currently competing for the PDRR phase of the ABL program.

Boeing provides the team's system integration expertise, while Lockheed Martin provides the optics and beam control technology. A contract expected to exceed $1.1 billion is scheduled to be awarded by the Air Force in November 1996.

A COIL laser operates by reacting basic hydrogen peroxide with chlorine gas to produce highly excited oxygen molecules. When these excited oxygen molecules are mixed with iodine molecules, the resulting chemical reaction produces excited iodine atoms.

As these excited iodine atoms "relax," they release energy as photons, or "packets" of light, all with the same wavelength. In the COIL's lasing cavity, an optical resonator "amplifies" this stream of photons. The photons are then extracted as an intense beam of light called a laser.

TRW's success in reaching the laser performance goals for the ABL program follows two years of corporate investments in laser experiments and component demonstrations designed to lower the risk and cost of developing the ABL system laser.

In 1995, the company opened the TRW Advanced COIL Engineering (TRACE) facility in Redondo Beach, Calif., to conduct COIL technology and laser component demonstrations at power levels in the tens of kilowatts. TRACE-based experiments verified the design and performance of components used in the BDL-2 tests.

In March 1996, TRW used the TRACE facility to produce a COIL with a chemical lasing efficiency that exceeded the ABL design requirement. Chemical efficiency is a measure of how well a COIL laser converts the energy of a powerful chemical reaction into light. The higher a laser's efficiency, the fewer chemicals it requires to produce a specified power level.

"The advanced technology performance levels demonstrated by TRW at TRACE mean that the ABL 747 aircraft will be able to fly higher with increased effective laser range or remain on station longer," explained Paul Shennum, Boeing's ABL program manager. "Either one of these options will significantly increase the military utility of the ABL."

In addition to its performance demonstrations, the BDL-2 has served as a vital "laboratory" for developing new, faster and more cost-effective ways to fabricate laser components. Fabrication of the BDL-2 began in late 1995. The integration of the laser at its test stand began in February 1996, and the first lasing test was completed in early July 1996.

"For the past 25 years, TRW has been the industry leader in the design and production of high-energy lasers, including the successful construction of the nation's two megawatt-class chemical lasers, MIRACL and ALPHA," said Maguire.

"Now, due to the Air Force's Technology Insertion Program and TRW's significant corporate investments in laser technology and risk reduction activities, we're very confident of our ability to successfully deliver the laser that will meet ABL system requirements."

TRW Space & Electronics Group (S&EG) has been engaged in the research and development of lasers since 1961. Today, S&EG designs and develops a variety of lasers, including high-energy hydrogen fluoride lasers, deuterium fluoride lasers, oxygen iodine lasers and diode-pumped solid-state lasers.

The group is an operating unit of Cleveland-based TRW Inc., which provides advanced technology products and services for the automotive and space and defense markets. TRW Inc.'s worldwide 1995 sales were more than $10 billion.

CONTACT: TRW

Brooks McKinney, 310/814-8177

or

Boeing

Randy Harrison, 206/655-8632