AIRBORNE LASER COMPLETES SUCCESSFUL IN-FLIGHT FIRST FIRING OF LASER TRACKING SYSTEM
Lt. General Henry A. "Trey" Obering, Missile Defense Agency director,
announced today the successful completion on March 15, 2007 of the first
in-flight test of the laser targeting system for the Airborne Laser, a
boost-phase missile defense system that is designed to use directed
energy to destroy a ballistic missile in the "boost" phase of flight.
This important milestone involved multiple firings of the Tracking
Illuminator Laser (TILL), mounted inside of the world's most heavily
modified Boeing 747-400 aircraft, to engage a missile-shaped target
painted on the side of a KC-135 aircraft nicknamed "Big Crow," and used
as an aerial target for low-power laser flight testing. The TILL is a
kilowatt-class solid-state laser that is intended to track a boosting
ballistic missile and identify the most vulnerable location on the
missile in preparation for the eventual firing of the High Energy Laser,
which will use directed energy to burn through the rocket motor case of a
hostile missile. This is the first open-air lasing in flight by ABL and
marks a significant step towards achieving the program's 2007 knowledge
points.
The test was conducted off the coast of California. The ABL Beam Control
System was able to engage the target aircraft and calculate the
instantaneous range to the target during the engagement.
Data was also collected on atmospheric turbulence and aero-optics using
one of "Big Crow's" solid-state laser beacons in preparation to close the
atmospheric compensation loop on a future flight.
Had to work a bit on this for safety of laser propagation in open air. And it was just one more thing on my pile of work to do. But I had a direct hand in this one.
I'm even more involved in the testing of the high energy laser, and in analysis of the laser-target interaction.
That's really cool.
