Lockheed Martin announced that the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser (ABL) team has successfully fired the High Energy Laser through the Lockheed Martin-developed Beam Control/Fire Control system. In a series of tests conducted in the aircraft on the ground, the Beam Control/Fire Control system focused and directed the High Energy Laser beam. The beam passed through the conformal window on the nose of the aircraft into a range simulator diagnostics system. Conducted at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., this phase of testing concluded last week.
This milestone builds on the previous successful testing aboard the modified Boeing 747-400F aircraft of the Lockheed Martin-developed Beam Control/Fire Control System, as well as of the Northrop Grumman-developed High Energy Laser and the Boeing-developed Battle Management System. Boeing is ABL’s prime contractor.
The team next will conduct further ground testing, followed by flight testing of the entire ABL system that will culminate in an airborne intercept test against a ballistic missile.
The Beam Control/Fire Control System locates and tracks the target, determines range to the target and then compensates for atmospheric turbulence. The system’s lower-energy lasers – the Track Illuminator Laser and the Beacon Illuminator Laser – determine where to point and focus the High Energy Laser. The High Energy Laser beam passes through the system’s optical path before exiting through the conformal window on the nose of the aircraft on its way to the target. Flight testing in 2007, using a surrogate High Energy Laser, verified the ability of the Beam Control/Fire Control System to maintain the focus of the laser beam while continuously tracking a target.
ABL will destroy a ballistic missile during its boost phase, while it is still accelerating in the Earth’s atmosphere and before it can deploy its warheads. The Missile Defense Agency manages the ABL program, which is executed by the U.S. Air Force from Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, N.M. The Boeing Company provides the modified aircraft and the Battle Management System and is the overall systems integrator. Boeing’s ABL industry partners are Northrop Grumman , which supplies the High Energy Laser and the Beacon Illuminator Laser, and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Sunnyvale, Calif., which provides the Beam Control/Fire Control System, including the nose-mounted turret.
During the test at Edwards Air Force Base, the laser beam traveled through the beam control/fire control system before exiting the aircraft through the nose-mounted turret. The beam control/fire control system steered and focused the beam onto a simulated ballistic-missile target.
“This test is significant because it demonstrated that the Airborne Laser missile defense program has successfully integrated the entire weapon system aboard the ABL aircraft,” said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems. “With the achievement of the first firing of the laser aboard the aircraft in September, the team has now completed the two major milestones it hoped to accomplish in 2008, keeping ABL on track to conduct the missile shootdown demonstration planned for next year.”
Michael Rinn, Boeing vice president and ABL program director, said the next step for the program is a series of longer-duration laser firings through the beam control/fire control system.
“Once we complete those tests, we will begin demonstrating the entire weapon system in flight,” Rinn said. “The team is meeting its commitment to deliver this transformational directed-energy weapon system in the near term.”
The program has logged many accomplishments over the past several years. In 2005, the high-energy laser demonstrated lethal levels of duration and power in the System Integration Laboratory at Edwards. In 2007, ABL completed numerous flight tests that demonstrated its ability to track an airborne target, measure and compensate for atmospheric conditions, and deliver a surrogate high-energy laser’s simulated lethal beam on the target. In September 2008, the team achieved “first light” by firing the high-energy laser into a calorimeter aboard the aircraft.
