TECHNOLOGY FOR CHANGE

Airborne Laser Test Bed Success: Laser Takes Down a Missile

Dave Greenfield | Date: 03-08-10 | Comments

The United States' first successful take-down of a missile from an aircraft-based laser was a success. But high costs and program delays may put it on the backburner.

Earlier last month, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency successfully harnessed the power of lasers to destroy a missile launched in what it calls the �first directed-energy lethal-intercept demonstration against a liquid-fuel-boosting ballistic missile target from an airborne platform.� Or more simply: An aircraft-based laser (ABL) is a step closer toward realizing missile defense that has only appeared on Star Wars thus far. But is it a step that will take us anywhere?

The demonstration occurred at 8:44 p.m. PST at Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center-Weapons Division Sea Range in central California. The laser, installed on a Boeing 747, had two tasks: detect the missile and disarm it. Within 2 minutes of the missile�s launch from a mobile platform off the coast, ABL had successfully completed both missions. The sensors detected the missile within seconds, tracked it with a low-energy laser and then fired the high-energy laser, which heated the missile to �critical structural failure.� A second test, performed an hour later, enjoyed similar success.

The Heritage Foundation�s National Security Policy�s Baker Spring called the test a �breakthrough that will lead to further refinements of directed energy weapons technology.� He argues that the technology will lead to even more applications, but the Obama administration is having none of it. The ABL program is on the chopping block for budget cuts. Defense Secretary Robert Gates shot down a plan for another ABL jet in April, saying, �The ABL program has significant affordability and technology problems.� The program was reportedly over budget by $4 billion and eight years behind schedule. This is a real issue for the administration in a time when the joblessness rate is higher than it has been in decades, and individual citizens are increasingly restless over the state of the economy and our nation�s defense systems in general.

Another problem comes from the design of ABL, which is meant to intercept short-range missiles in the boost phase, or just after launch. To successfully destroy a long-range missile, the ABL would have to get within 300 km of its target, which would put it in hostile territory. This has been called �unfeasible.�

Star Wars will remain science fiction for the present.