Airborne Laser Test Bed Success: Laser Takes Down a Missile
Dave Greenfield | Date: 03-08-10 | Comments: 0
- 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.
