ABL Scheduled for '09 tests

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2007-11-12 01:59pm

Link

Published: 15 October 2007 02:55 PM
Source: The Engineer

The world's most powerful airborne laser capable of shooting down a ballistic missile is being re-assembled by Northrop Grumman and the US Missile Defence Agency (MDA).

The laser is being integrated onto MDA's Airborne Laser (ABL). High-power system testing will follow completion.

The ABL, a modified 747-400F supplied by Boeing, will be the first combat aircraft to rely entirely upon a directed energy device as a weapon.

It is designed to use directed energy to destroy a ballistic missile target shortly after it is launched during its 'boost phase' of flight, when it is considered to be the most vulnerable. When operational, the ABL will be an integral part of a layered Ballistic Missile Defence System.

The integration is taking place at Edwards Air Force Base, California. A refurbishment had involved the disassembly and inspection of the high-energy Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) after successful ground tests in 2005.

During those tests, the laser demonstrated repeatability of sufficient power and duration to shoot down a ballistic missile.

Guy Renard, Northrop Grumman's ABL programme manager, said most of the COIL components showed little degradation after the laser was fired more than 70 times in previous ground tests.

Re-assembly of the megawatt-class laser will continue in 2008 and will be followed by ground and flight-testing of the integrated weapon system, culminating in the shootdown of a boosting missile planned in August 2009.

Earlier this year The Engineer reported that Boeing had successfully fired ABL's track illuminator laser at a target to gather tracking data.

Kane Starkiller · Post by **Kane Starkiller** » 2007-11-12 02:12pm

How exactly is this going to work? I mean will there be constant 24 hour patrol by these laser equipped planes and how many of them will be built?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2007-11-12 02:16pm

I thought we gave up on this money pit long ago. Why the sudden interest again? Chemical lasers just plain suck, so I'd rather wait for a solid-state or other version with the same output and lack of dangerous chemicals.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2007-11-12 02:30pm

Kane Starkiller wrote:How exactly is this going to work? I mean will there be constant 24 hour patrol by these laser equipped planes and how many of them will be built?

When and where needed, they'd send some out to patrol, presumably on 24-hour patrol (747s do have quite long endurance, after all, and the USAF is hoping to buy several of them).

Admiral Valdemar wrote:I thought we gave up on this money pit long ago. Why the sudden interest again? Chemical lasers just plain suck, so I'd rather wait for a solid-state or other version with the same output and lack of dangerous chemicals.

IIRC, they want to get the whole system working as a stopgap measure; if solid-state lasers ever get the yield needed, they could swap out the COIL.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2007-11-12 03:40pm

Kane Starkiller wrote:How exactly is this going to work? I mean will there be constant 24 hour patrol by these laser equipped planes and how many of them will be built?

The original plan was to buy seven of the things, plus the prototype, equipped for in-flight refueling so that patrols could be sustained 24/7 in two different theaters. However since ABL has had so many delays and technological hurdles the program has been scaled down, and its only objective now is just to make the damn laser work. If and when that happens they’ll come up with a new production plan.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2007-11-12 03:56pm

I thought ABL had gotten the Axe. Or at least, thats what I recall from this old thread.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2007-11-12 08:22pm

phongn wrote:
Kane Starkiller wrote:How exactly is this going to work? I mean will there be constant 24 hour patrol by these laser equipped planes and how many of them will be built?
When and where needed, they'd send some out to patrol, presumably on 24-hour patrol (747s do have quite long endurance, after all, and the USAF is hoping to buy several of them).

It'll work nicely as an ever present signal to the people living under it that they're not being paranoid enough, and that the evil terrists are out to get them.

Ma Deuce · Post by **Ma Deuce** » 2007-11-12 09:21pm

Drooling Iguana wrote:It'll work nicely as an ever present signal to the people living under it that they're not being paranoid enough, and that the evil terrists are out to get them.

These things wouldn't normally patrol over US soil though, they're intended to shoot down missiles in the boost phase, and to do that they'd have to patrol fairly close to where they launch (a few hundred kilometers).

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2007-11-12 09:30pm

Even if it's not practical, it's still really really cool. Perhaps we will get to see a live demonstration when it goes into service?

Loner · Post by **Loner** » 2007-11-12 11:19pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:I thought we gave up on this money pit long ago. Why the sudden interest again? Chemical lasers just plain suck, so I'd rather wait for a solid-state or other version with the same output and lack of dangerous chemicals.

Chemical laser you say?

Ritterin Sophia · Post by **Ritterin Sophia** » 2007-11-12 11:37pm

Loner wrote:
Admiral Valdemar wrote:I thought we gave up on this money pit long ago. Why the sudden interest again? Chemical lasers just plain suck, so I'd rather wait for a solid-state or other version with the same output and lack of dangerous chemicals.
Chemical laser you say?

Yep, Ace Combat is going real!

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2007-11-12 11:39pm

Isn't this "Star Wars" revisited? Didn't Reagan have a similar plan?

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2007-11-12 11:59pm

Superman wrote:Isn't this "Star Wars" revisited? Didn't Reagan have a similar plan?

Sort of. SDI called for satellite based lasers and other particle beam weapons. This is FAR more ambitious then placing such a weapon in an airplane, because you’ve got less space and weight to work with, and you can’t do regular maintenance.

As part of the SDI research effort a laser equipped KC-135 called the Airborne Laser Laboratory was built, and it successfully shot down Sidewinder missiles and Q-34 target drones. The firepower and thus effective range was too low for it to be an effective operational weapon. ABL builds on this work, but its a program that was launched well after SDI was dead.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2007-11-13 12:50am

There's theoretical uses for this; if it can kill an ICBM, for example, it can do very unpleasant things to the enemy. Set one a few hundred miles from the enemy, and you have artillery fire from the sky.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2007-11-13 12:55am

What's the range on a typical man-portable anti-air missile?

hawkwind · Post by **hawkwind** » 2007-11-13 01:05am

Only in case that enemy presents target tempting enough. Ithink that a single shot from this thing will be extremely expensive. Shooting down ICBM is worth it. Shooting at couple of grunts, or even a single tank - will probably not.
Besides misile is relativelly soft target, anything on ground sans the grunts will be much harder to kill.

J.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2007-11-13 01:07am

SirNitram wrote:There's theoretical uses for this; if it can kill an ICBM, for example, it can do very unpleasant things to the enemy. Set one a few hundred miles from the enemy, and you have artillery fire from the sky.

No you don’t. At 35,000ft the plane is above something like 99% of the mass of the atmosphere. This is why its expected to bring down missiles at 300-600km (depending on missile type). If you fire down through that atmosphere the effective range and firepower is going to be reduced radically, and the chemical ammo supply isn’t too big to start with.

The US military does however have projects for placing smaller offensive lasers on helicopters and on the planned replacement for the AC-130, which can reasonably get much closer to targets. In another 15-20 years solid state lasers may become standard defensive weapons on aircraft, as even a relatively low powered laser can wreck the seeker on an infrared guided missile and turn it into a ballistic rocket.

Drooling Iguana wrote:What's the range on a typical man-portable anti-air missile?

6-8km, and a 10,000ft ceiling. However such missiles are really only a serious threat to aircraft at about half those values. Fixed wing aircraft typically fly at 12,000-15,000ft when faced with a MANPADS threat and are totally immune at that point.

However, some anti aircraft missiles which are much larger then MANPADS are still highly mobile, and might realistically be used by non nation state forces.