Putin is gonna be really pissed off about this when it's deployed. Modified 747 completes key testFrom correspondents in Washington July 17, 2007 08:54am Article from: ReutersFont size: + - Send this article: Print Email A MODIFIED Boeing 747 designed to be part of an emerging US antimissile shield has successfully completed an important flight test, the Pentagon's Missile Defence Agency and Boeing said today. To simulate an intercept, the prototype Airborne Laser actively tracked an airborne target, compensated for atmospheric turbulence and fired a "surrogate" for a missile-zapping high-energy laser, they said. "We have now demonstrated most of the steps needed for the Airborne Laser to engage a threat missile and deliver precise and lethal effects against it," said Pat Shanahan, a vice president at Boeing, the prime contractor. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel John Daniels, the Pentagon's program manager, said the test on Saturday marked an historic day for "directed-energy" weapons firing at the speed of light, or 186,000 miles per second. "This will fundamentally change the way we engage and destroy fleeting targets," he said. The airborne laser is to be the first warplane relying entirely on a directed energy device as a weapon. It is designed to destroy an enemy ballistic missile shortly after it is launched, in the "boost phase" of its flight path. The program will have cost about $US5 billion ($5.75 billion) from its inception in the early 1990s through a scheduled test intercept test of a mock enemy missile in August 2009, Lt-Col Daniels said. The modified Boeing 747-400F took off from Edwards Air Force Base, California. It used its infrared sensors and a tracking laser to zero in on a "target board" on an Air Force aircraft, Boeing said. The aircraft fired the tracking laser at the target aircraft, dubbed Big Crow, for the first time on March 15. The test on Friday demonstrated an ability to go from passive tracking of a simulated missile engine "plume" to active tracking, Boeing said. In addition, the Lockheed Martin Corp. beam control and fire control system was used to offset atmospheric turbulence in conjunction with the active tracking and firing of the device standing in for the chemical oxygen-iodine laser, the company said. Engineers will start installing the actual high-energy laser, built by Northrop Grumman Corp, in coming months to prepare for the intercept test. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22086910-1702,00.html?from=public_rss
Too bad the YAL-1A is a couple of years late already. I think they first stated that the test firing of the laser would happen January 2005. Turned out that it's pretty hard task to install a rigid millimeter laser into a flexible airframe that bends and moves when the plane flies around. My prediction is that when they weed out the problems and YAL-1A flies zapping drones/missiles down, it marks the death of the air defense fighters. Instead of Raptors, Typhoons and whatnots, you'll have a couple of jumbojets flying around in circles defending the airspace
Yeah, but it may make a lot of people look foolish. I remember a few years back when the very idea of shooting down missles with lasers was derided as "Star Wars". Implying that it was an impractical and foolish idea that belonged only in science fiction . Especially President Reagan's political opponents in the US. Late doesn't matter that much. Revolutionary breakthroughs in technology take a bit longer. As far as ending the role of air defense fighters goes; I don't see how. Until everybody can develop and deploy their own airborne laser systems somebody will still need air defense fighters.
That and the fact that there are currently no plans to make the lasers capable of shooting 20mm rounds out of the sky...
No reason for everyone to develop their own system. Financial realities alone will spread the system around the world, starting from the rich western countries at first. The same system that search and tracks cruise missiles, is capable of searching and tracking aircrafts. Just zap the attacking fighters out of the sky while orbiting over your own airbase in your A-380 while sipping coffee. Low flying small aircraft (manned or unmanned) is probably the achilles heel of the system (light scattering diminishes the usefulness of the system while the attacking aircraft can use terrain to mask their EM signatures. Both directly concealing or just making the detection alot harder.) but like every obstacle, that will be overcome by the technological advances someday.
Yeah, well, don't expect any of the critics to admit they were wrong and Reagan was right anytime soon. Or the media, for that matter. Amnesia will strike the whole lot of them and they'll just hope that no one remembers how wrong they were. And most folks won't remember, sad to say. Or care.
Of course, they may have been right 20 years ago, although maybe not today. Taking out a missile in the boost phase is much easier than trying to intercept an incoming RB.Because if the need to make everything as light as possible, the missile skins are very thin and contain large quantites of extremly explosive stuff behind them. I would think this system would work best on liquid fueled missiles.
If this system is going to spread around the world several things will have to happen. The directed energy and radar technology required to field the system will have to be developed by each country that desires to field such a system since it is unlikely that the US will sell the technology to many (if any) other countries (with the possible exception of Britain since the US and Britain typically share advanced technology). The other thing that will have to happen is those countries who desire such a system will likely have to increase their defense spending significantly. Few countries have the defense budget to develop and field such an advanced (and expensive both to develop and maintain) technology system.
The system doesn't have a radar. Search and track is conducted through IR sensors. The "directed energy technology" is a huge megawatt class solid state laser that fries things out of the air. All that is mated to an aircraft. The investors want their money back, hence I said "financial realities alone will spread the system around". Same thing has happened to numerous others expensive systems in the military field and will happen to this thing eventually, but it probably will happen later ( 20-40 years from now on) on the technology on YAL-1A, than sooner.
You are correct about the radar and I stand corrected. Of course, my point , that it represents advanced technology is even more reinforced by the fact that the system uses a unique target acqusition and beam control system developed especially for this weapon system. I disagree with your point about the investors wanting their money back since the investors are really the taxpayers of the United States. Speaking for myself, as an investor in the ICBMs and nuclear ballistic missile submarines previously deployed by the US, I am not interested in recouping my investment by selling these systems to the highest bidder.
Target acquisition is an ordinary IR sensor. Nothing new there. Beam control and adaptive optics are more commonly used in astronomy. Check for example how VLT works. There's nothing revolutionary in the plane. The money you invested on ICBMs has already payed you back a bit. Just check what missiles UK uses in their boomers. The next high level candidate for export is the F-22.
I would certainly call the target acquisition and beam control system unique. I'm aware of no other weapons system that utilizes a similar method ( but I could be wrong). I have no doubt whatsoever that deploying and maintaining such a system on multiple platforms will be expensive indeed and beyond the means of most other countries. As far as payback on ICBMs goes I don't think the fact that the technology was shared with the Brits resulted in any financial payback to the US taxpayer. As I stated in my earlier post the US and Britain typically share advanced weapons technology. No financial payback other than the defense contracts with the manufacturers were contemplated in regard to ICBMs or nuclear weapons technology and likely never will be. I quite imagine that this system will be treated in a similar fashion rather than as a potential export such as the F-22 which will be exported to only a few other countries, if any.
Megawatt laser? This is starting to sound like Star Wars. Although is something like this even going to work?
Easy now, the thing hasn't even been fully tested yet What is the actual method of destruction? As i understand it, the laser is designed to heat the fuel propellant to a temperature high enough so that it explodes? Is this correct? And why are lasers (real lasers, not sci-fi) always red? Is it to do with red having the highest wavelength and what benefit does this have?
Nope, it's designed to cause a local rupture or weakening of the tank so internal pressure takes care of the rest. Red is actually a lower energy than other colours - it's easier to "pump" red light than higher frequencies/ energies because you have to put energy in to make the beam. Using higher energies (blue for instance) requires a much greater energy input - it's all because of quantum (as Terry Pratchett would say).
For the laser in YAL-1A the determining factor for the laser "color" is atmospheric conditions. The aim is to minimize both scattering and absorption losses of the laser. The laser will probably be an IR laser, so you don't see the light at all. edit: The Laser wavelength will be 1.315 microns. Definitely in the IR area.
I remember reading almost exactly this kind of thing in books in my school library in the late 1980s/early 1990s. Are they really dusting off the old plans again?
Correct me if I am wrong (I'm treading on thin ice) - but wouldn't the laser be used at altitudes where it flies "above the weather" and where the thinner air = less resistance to the beam?
