Jan 15 2007
Major ground testing has wrapped up for the Airborne Laser, the Pentagon’s long-in-development antimissile weapon that will enable a jumbo jet packed with gear designed to shoot down enemy missiles half a world away, at the speed of light. Next phase: Testing the lasers in flight. “Today we are taking a major step to give the American people their first light saber,” Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, said at an official coming-out party for the heavily modified 747-400F at a Boeing facility in Wichita, Kan.
Later this year, the ABL project will begin firing the plane’s two illuminator lasers in flight at a missile-shaped target painted on a test aircraft. The 747’s crew will use those low-power, solid-state lasers to track the target and to assess the atmospheric conditions. The high-energy chemical laser that will serve as the actual weapon won’t be installed until 2007, according to
“While the low-power system may not be as sexy as the high-power engagement laser, it’s the heart of the system. It’s what turns an interesting engineering project into a lethal weapon system,” Obering said.
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January 15th, 2007 by financetwitter
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