- Airborne Laser Weapon
System On 747s Now
In Production
From Kevin <kxs@digital.net>
- http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/program/abl.htm
- 10-24-98
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- http://www.rense.com/ufo/lasersys.htm
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- The ABL weapon system will use a
high-energy, chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) mounted on a modified
747-400F (freighter) aircraft to shoot down theater ballistic missiles
in their boost phase. A crew of four, including pilot and copilot,
will operate the airborne laser, which will patrol in pairs at high
altitude, about 40,000 feet. The jets will fly in orbits over friendly
territory, scanning the horizon for the plumes of rising missiles.
Capable of autonomous operation, the ABL will acquire and track
missiles in the boost phase of flight. A tracking laser beam will
illuminate the missile, and computers will measure the distance and
calculate its course and direction. After acquiring and locking onto
the target, a second laser - with weapons-class strength - will fire a
three- to five-second burst from a turret located in the 747's nose.
The missiles will be destroyed over the launch area.
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- The airborne laser will fire a
Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser, or COIL, which was invented at Phillips
Lab in 1977. The laser's fuel consists of the same chemicals found in
hair bleach and Drano - hydrogen peroxide and potassium hydroxide -
which are then combined with chlorine gas and water. The laser
operates at an infrared wavelength of 1.315 microns, which is
invisible to the eye. By recycling chemicals, building with plastics
and using a unique cooling process, the COIL team was able to make the
laser lighter and more efficient while - at the same time - increasing
its power by 400 percent in five years. The flight-weighted ABL module
will be similar in performance and power levels to the multi-hundred
kilowatt class COIL Baseline Demonstration Laser (BDL-2) module
demonstrated by TRW in August 1996. As its name implies, though, it
will be lighter and more compact than the earlier version due to the
integration of advanced aerospace materials into the design of
critical hardware components. For the operational ABL system, several
modules will be linked together in series to achieve ABL's required
megawatt-class power level.
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- Atmospheric turbulence, which
weakens and scatters the laser's beam, is produced by fluctuations in
air temperature [the same phenomenon that causes stars to twinkle].
Adaptive optics relies on a deformable mirror, sometimes called a
rubber mirror, to compensate for tilt and phase distortions in the
atmosphere. The mirror has 341 actuators that change at a rate of
about a 1,000 per second.
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- The Airborne Laser is a Major
Defense Acquisition Program. After the Concept Design Phase is
complete, the ABL will enter the Program Definition and Risk Reduction
(PDRR) Phase. The objective of the PDRR phase is to develop a cost
effective, flexible airborne high energy laser system which provides a
credible deterrent and lethal defensive capabilities against boosting
theater ballistic missiles.
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- The ABL PDRR Program is intended to
show high confidence system performance scalable to Engineering and
Manufacturing Development (EMD) levels. The PDRR Program includes the
design, development, integration, and testing of an airborne
high-energy laser weapon system.
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- In May 1994, two contracts were
awarded to develop fully operational ABL weapon system concepts and
then derive ABL PDRR Program concepts that are fully traceable and
scaleable EMD. A single contract team was selected to proceed with the
development of the chosen PDRR concept beginning in November 1996.
Successful development and testing of the laser module is one of the
critical 'exit criteria' that Team ABL must satisfy to pass the
program's first 'authority-to-proceed' (ATP-1) milestone, scheduled
for June 1998. Testing of the laser module is expected to be completed
by April 1998. The PDRR detailed design, integration, and test will
culminate in a lethality demonstration in the year 2002. A follow-on
Engineering Manufacturing and Development/Production (EMD) effort
could then begin in the early 2003 time frame. A fleet of fully
operational EMD systems is intended to satisfy Air Combat Command's
boost-phase Theater Air Defense requirements. If all goes as planned,
a fleet of seven ABLs should be flying operational missions by 2008.
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- Performance requirements for the
Airborne Laser Weapons System are established by the operational
scenarios and support requirements defined by the user, Air Combat
Command, and by measured target vulnerability characteristics provided
by the Air Force lethality and vulnerability community centered at the
Phillips Laboratory. The ABL PDRR Program is supported by a robust
technology insertion and risk reduction program to provide early
confidence that scaling to EMD performance is feasible. The technology
and concept design efforts provide key answers to the PDRR design
effort in the areas of lethality, atmospheric characterization, beam
control, aircraft systems integration, and environmental concerns.
These efforts are the source of necessary data applied to exit
criteria ensuring higher and higher levels of confidence are
progressively reached at key milestones of the PDRR development.
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- The key issues in the program will
be effective range of the laser and systems integration of a Boeing
747 aircraft.
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- Airborne Laser Resources
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- The Airborne Laser Program Homepage
The ABL program is managed by the Air Force Phillips Laboratory.
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- * Vol. 1, Number 3, July 1995
Airborne Laser Program Newsletter * Vol. 2, Number 4, August 1996
Airborne Laser Program Newsletter * Vol. 3, Number 1, February 1997
Airborne Laser Program Newsletter * Vol. 3, Number 3, June 1997
Airborne Laser Program Newsletter
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- Airborne Laser Contract An archive
of documents relating to the ABL contract and source selection
process. Most of these are excruciatingly boring contract legalese,
but this represents the major source of primary program information.
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- Airborne Laser (ABL) for Theater
Missile Defense The Airborne Laser (ABL) program is developing design
concepts to minimize engineering risks for an airborne, high-energy
laser weapon demonstrator capable of acquiring, tracking, and killing
theater ballistic missiles in boost phase. The Airborne Laser
Experiment (ABLEX) was a series of experiments propagating a laser
beam between two aircraft. Two defense industry teams, Boeing and
Rockwell International, developed design concepts for the ABL which
include a nose-mounted turret, a chemical oxygen-iodine laser, and a
747 aircraft. At the end of the concept design phase, the Boeing
contractor team was selected to build a demonstrator that will be
flight tested.
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- Airborne Laser (ABL) The Airborne
Laser (ABL) Demonstrator Program is an Air Force Advanced Technology
Demonstration program to develop and then demonstrate the necessary
technologies to acquire, track, and destroy theater ballistic missiles
during boost phase.
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- Phillips Laboratory Scoping Meeting
For Airborne Laser 28 March 1995 - A meeting to discuss environmental
concerns associated with the Phillips Laboratory's Airborne Laser
Program was held April 4, 1995 to solicit public input on any
environmental concerns.
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- BOEING, LOCKHEED MARTIN, TRW WIN
AIRBORNE LASER CONTRACT November 12, 1996 -- The U. S. Air Force
awarded a team of Boeing, TRW and Lockheed Martin a $1.1 billion
contract to develop and flight test a laser weapon system to defend
against theater ballistic missiles.
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- Airborne Laser @ Boeing As part of a
US Air Force effort to address the feasibility of an airborne laser
system for defense against those types of missiles, a team comprised
of Boeing, TRW and Lockheed Martin has been exploring the concept of
an accurate, airborne, high-energy laser.
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- Airborne Laser - Rockwell Team There
were initially two teams competing for the program: the Rockwell /
Hughes / Raytheon E-Systems / SVS R&D / Lockheed Martin / Parsons
/ SAIC team, and the Boeing / Lockheed / TRW team. The Airborne Laser
contract was awarded on November 12, 1996.
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- Laser Beam Propagation and Control
SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2120. Meeting Date: 01/23 - 01/29/94 - Abstracts
for the papers in this volume are located in this file immediately
following the contents list below. All papers are published by SPIE --
The International Society for Optical Engineering. Includes abstracts
of reports on the Airborne laser experiment (ABLEX) series of
experiments.
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- Airborne Laser Experiment to study
performance limits of turbulence compensation systems from OE Reports
December 1995 issue An interview Russell Butts, Air Force Phillips
Laboratory - ABLEX is an acronym for Airborne Laser Experiment, which
was an experiment which propagated a laser beam from one aircraft to
another aircraft. At the receiver aircraft, an 80-cm telescope and
optical system imaged the intensity pattern incident across the
aperture onto a focal plane where the intensity patterns were
recorded.
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- FTC NEGOTIATES SETTLEMENT WITH
HUGHES OVER ITEK ACQUISITION; FEBRUARY 9, 1996 - The sale of assets
between one of the partners in each of the two teams competing for a
$700 million Air Force contract could raise prices or reduce
investments in technology and quality for a critical component of an
Air Force anti-missile program, the Federal Trade Commission has
alleged. Today, the FTC announced it has reached a settlement of these
allegations with General Motors and its subsidiaries, Hughes
Electronics and Hughes Danbury Optical Systems. The FTC said the
settlement will ensure continued competition for "deformable
mirrors," part of the adaptive optics system that allow an
anti-missile system to correct for distortions in the atmosphere. The
affected system is the Air Force's Airborne Laser (ABL) program.
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- *MIT, USAF, And Team ABL Demonstrate Improved Airborne Laser Active
Tracking Approach
- *Team ABL Proposes Airborne Laser Weapon System - July 9, 1996
- *TRW Approved to Begin Manufacturing First Laser Hardware for
Airborne Laser System March 10, 1997
- *Team ABL Successfully Completes A Major Program Milestone, March
26, 1997
- *Set Lasers on Stun
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