U.S. Airborne Laser-Weapon Successfully Tested

While we here are still debating on relatively mundane issues like whether Malaysia is an Islamic state and when to retire our fleet of aging Nuri helicopters, the US has gone on ahead to turn Star Trek type of science fiction into reality.

According to Xinhua Online, U.S. defense contractor Boeing Co., along with its industry teammates and governmental customer the Missile Defense Agency, has conducted a successful flight test for the airborne laser-weapon system. The airborne laser program, reached a major testing milestone last week when the system successfully tracked a flying target and simulated the firing of a missile-killing laser, quoting the Los Angeles Daily News.

During the Friday test in Edwards Air Force Base in California, the airborne laser or ABL, with its infrared sensors and its track illuminator laser, found and tracked an instrumented target board on a modified KC-135 aircraft dubbed Big Crow.

The Big Crow fired its beacon laser at the ABL aircraft to allow the airborne laser to measure and compensate for laser beam distortion caused by the atmosphere, program officials said. The airborne laser then fired a surrogate high-energy laser to simulate a missile shoot-down.

"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, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems. In upcoming flight tests, the airborne laser will again demonstrate the engagement sequence, but use its own beacon illuminator laser, instead of one mounted in Big Crow, to measure atmospheric distortion.

After those flight tests, the ABL team will spend several months installing the actual Northrop Grumman-built high-energy "kill" laser into the aircraft. The weapon system's graduation test will be against an in-flight missile in 2009.

ABL program officials envision future airborne laser aircraft patrolling in pairs at more than 12,000 meters and inside friendly territory, scanning the horizon for missiles.
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