[release]
After nearly 16 years of development and more than $5 billion spent, culminating in a series of ballistic missile target engagements, the Pentagon has finally decided to mothball the Boeing-led 747-400F project known as the Airborne Laser.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is now looking toward a new generation of lasers that could operate on unmanned vehicles at very high altitudes owing to advancements in laser technology, power generation and beam control work made possible in part by the foundation laid in the ABL years.
The program was established by the U.S. Air Force in the 1990s with an aim of employing a multi-megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) to burn through the propulsion systems of boosting ballistic missile targets, sending the rockets and their potentially lethal payloads raining back down upon the area from which they were launched.
Despite finally shooting down its first target last year, ABL has cratered under the substantial funding required for its work, cost-prohibitive and improbable employment scenarios and, most recently, pressure on the Pentagon budget resulting from growing national debt.
Though ABL found itself on death row awaiting termination multiple times in the past decade, the industry team and MDA, which took over management of the program in 2001, managed to keep it alive. Finally, in February 2010, the ABL engaged and destroyed its first test target — a solid-rocket fueled Terrier Black Brant rocket. This was followed just more than a week later by another shootdown, this time of a liquid-fueled foreign missile target.
MDA Director Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly is now focused on a new generation of laser systems with “much denser capability or greater power lasers in smaller packages and operating at much higher altitudes,” he told a gathering hosted by the Huntsville, Ala., Chamber of Commerce Dec. 12. This, he says, will simplify future designs.
“We do believe we are very close … within a few years of having a prototype that will actually operate out of an unattended air vehicle at very high altitudes,” O’Reilly said. “We basically have a horse race going on between several different technologies [and] all of them are very promising.” He predicts that “we have that capability to achieves something with a very high-altitude UAV over this decade.”
Details of this project were not provided by MDA.
Advances since the start of ABL in electric-powered solid-state lasers, however, are likely where the future lies if scientists manage to solve the problem of generating enough power for the lasers to have operational benefit at significant ranges and fired from small, mobile platforms.
Retaining skills
Meanwhile, not all of ABL is lost or mothballed. Boeing has recommended that MDA retain 20 engineers and scientists versed in beam control/fire control, jitter and platform dynamics disciplines “to ensure transfer of knowledge and lessons to future high-power directed-energy programs.
With the official demise of ABL, Boeing’s position in the missile defense market is even more dependent on its precarious, and potentially short-term, control of the Ground Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) ballistic missile shield program, which includes a global network of sensors and interceptors in Alaska and California.
MDA is competing the work, which has been exclusively handled by Boeing, and a source selection between Boeing/Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin/Raytheon is expected as soon as this month.
Given ABL’s end, if Boeing loses the GMD contract the company could find itself going from the prominent missile defense integrator in the U.S. to a mere supplier to its onetime rivals.
[I]MDA file photo of ABL 747-400F[/release]
[/I][URL]http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/asd/2011/12/21/02.xml&headline=Lights%20Out%20For%20The%20Airborne%20Laser&channel=defense[/URL]
Money well spent ehh?
Is this the same laser that came out of the dugway proving grounds in Utah that I live kinda sorta next to? [img]http://www.aliendave.com/files/Photos/Dugway/UTTR_Testbeam_web.jpg[/img], they do all kinda of nutty top secret tests and shit over there, they don't exactly hide it that well either.
Well I assume they learned a lot about airborne lasers. My guess is in the future, what was learned there could be applied to devices used for clearing debris in LEO
It never really was about money.
[quote]improbable employment scenarios[/quote]
Problem is that the project was pretty fucking worthless, from the beginning.
You would need to deploy this slow-ass plane which has no stealth capabilities which is more of a massive infra and radar beacon, no armor, and no chance to dodge fire, to patrol near the enemy launch sites.
It's a cool tech and everything, but the chance it could ever really useful is very low.
These weapons are being developed to protect their investment, not the people.
Didn't they cancel this shit in 2009?
[editline]22nd December 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=BenJammin';33840168]Is this the same laser that came out of the dugway proving grounds in Utah that I live kinda sorta next to? [img]http://www.aliendave.com/files/Photos/Dugway/UTTR_Testbeam_web.jpg[/img], they do all kinda of nutty top secret tests and shit over there, they don't exactly hide it that well either.[/QUOTE]
I thought the air borne laser was invisible
Nooooo.
Now I can't invalidate foreigners' arguments by saying we have a flying goddamn laser.
[QUOTE=Broseph_;33840583]I thought the air borne laser was invisible[/QUOTE]Reflected of dak clouds.
I'm not for extraordinary military spending, especially when it turns out it doesn't lead to much like in this case, but I really think humanity needs more jumbo jets with giant lasers attached to them. Disappointing to see this go.
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;33840297]It never really was about money.
Problem is that the project was pretty fucking worthless, from the beginning.
You would need to deploy this slow-ass plane which has no stealth capabilities which is more of a massive infra and radar beacon, no armor, and no chance to dodge fire, to patrol near the enemy launch sites.
It's a cool tech and everything, but the chance it could ever really useful is very low.[/QUOTE]
The planes do fly at very high altitudes.
I thought the same missiles could be targeted by soldiers on the ground with their own lasers.
I remember reading about this forever ago in Popular Science...they were already talking about scrapping it back then because of the logistics and costs required. Fuel would be especially expensive if you want to have coverage for hours at a time over a large area. They gave an example about securing Israel's border and said it would be nearly impossible and exorbitantly expensive despite it being a small nation. Essentially, they would only ever be useful for active combat zones, but then enemy aircraft can just come in and shoot it down no doubt.
[quote]The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is now looking toward a new generation of lasers that could operate on unmanned vehicles at very high altitudes owing to advancements in laser technology, power generation and beam control work made possible in part by the foundation laid in the ABL years.[/quote]
Obviously the research didn't go to waste.
[QUOTE=codemaster85;33846506]I thought the same missiles could be targeted by soldiers on the ground with their own lasers.[/QUOTE]
That takes impossibly good aim and range, and I imagine that machine-based ones that are placed on the ground wouldn't be very mobile or, if they were mobile, not very powerful.
[QUOTE=rinoaff33;33846619]That takes impossibly good aim and range, and I imagine that machine-based ones that are placed on the ground wouldn't be very mobile or, if they were mobile, not very powerful.[/QUOTE]
Oh I had read it wrong. i was thinking it was lasers that guided missiles to their target location. Not ones that destroy missiles.
I wonder if they are going to cancel that laser mounted on a modified 747 that can burn clean through dozens of tanks, and it's invisible, supposedly.
[QUOTE=joost1120;33844999]The planes do fly at very high altitudes.[/QUOTE]
As do the missiles that will take them out of the air. Not to mention any modern fighter could get up their with it.
Why don't you just mount this on a satellite if you want to shoot down ICBMs?
[QUOTE=BenJammin';33840168]Is this the same laser that came out of the dugway proving grounds in Utah that I live kinda sorta next to? [/QUOTE]
Where do you live? I think I saw that, albeit a bit closer.
Well it was a good concept.
[QUOTE=MrBob1337;33855508]Why don't you just mount this on a satellite if you want to shoot down ICBMs?[/QUOTE]
because earth has an atmosphere
Well, as long as they're going to use the idea on something less expensive, I'm somewhat okay with that. I mean, the idea that a huge jet with a fucking laser on the front of it saying "POP POP POP, WATCHIN' MOTHAFUCKAS DROP" to ICBMs that are raining down is really awesome. Scrapping something entirely with that big of a pricetag would be a huge waste.[QUOTE=Contag;33856545]because earth has an atmosphere[/QUOTE][citation needed]
I think it would be badass as fuck if we could get this on a land vehicle.
[QUOTE=BenJammin';33840168]Is this the same laser that came out of the dugway proving grounds in Utah that I live kinda sorta next to? [img]http://www.aliendave.com/files/Photos/Dugway/UTTR_Testbeam_web.jpg[/img], they do all kinda of nutty top secret tests and shit over there, they don't exactly hide it that well either.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, its crazy what you can see them testing from here, infact, back when they were testing nukes, you could see the glow over the mountain range just south from SLC.
[QUOTE=Contag;33856545]because earth has an atmosphere[/QUOTE]
Not to mention it's meant to target missiles while they're still actively boosting
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
