By Ann Roosevelt
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Feb. 11 successfully demonstrated the potential use of directed energy to defend against ballistic missiles when the Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB) destroyed a boosting ballistic missile.
The successful shoot-down comes eight years after the scheduled 2002 Airborne Laser, now ALTB, interception flight test. That same schedule called for three operational ABL aircraft in 2004, with another four operational by 2006.
“This was the first directed energy lethal intercept demonstration against a liquid-fuel boosting ballistic missile target from an airborne platform,” MDA said in a statement. “The revolutionary use of directed energy is very attractive for missile defense, with the potential to attack multiple targets at the speed of light, at a range of hundreds of kilometers, and at a low cost per intercept attempt compared to current technologies.”
However, the fiscal year 2011 budget request moves the program into research, adding $99 million for a Directed Energy Research (DER) program, under the Director of Defense Research and Engineering.
“We will, for at least the foreseeable future, control the aircraft, but the whole idea is to use that as a platform for testing other directed energy weapons,” said David Altwegg, MDA executive director at the agency budget briefing Feb. 1.
The Boeing [BA] 747-400F ALTB aircraft design “makes it very amenable to inserting other directed energy weapons in there to conduct tests,” he said. Technology advances also could lead to more compact lasers of similar power in a smaller platform.
“We will have enough funding now–this year–to maintain the aircraft–meaning maintenance–and also to conduct some testing,” Altwegg said. The program has about $100 million.
There could be as many as three additional tests after the shoot-down, he said.
The Feb. 10 experiment, conducted at Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center-Weapons Division Sea Range off the central California coast, served as a proof-of-concept demonstration for directed energy technology.
At 8:44 p.m. (PST), a short-range threat-representative ballistic missile was launched from an at-sea mobile launch platform. Within seconds, the ALTB used onboard sensors to detect the boosting missile and used a low-energy laser to track the target. The ALTB then fired a second low-energy laser to measure and compensate for atmospheric disturbance. Finally, the ALTB fired its megawatt-class High Energy Laser, heating the boosting ballistic missile to critical structural failure. The entire engagement occurred within two minutes of the target missile launch, while its rocket motors were still thrusting.
Less than one hour later, a second solid fuel short-range missile was launched from a ground location on San Nicolas Island, Calif., and the ALTB successfully engaged the boosting target with its High Energy Laser, met all its test criteria, and terminated lasing before destroying the second target, MDA said. The ALTB destroyed a solid fuel missile, identical to the second target, in flight on Feb. 3.
In 1996, prime contractor Boeing won the $1.1 billion contract to develop the airborne laser At the time, the program was designed to provide a speed-of-light lethal capability to intercept all classes of ballistic missile in their early, boosting phase of flight.
“The Airborne Laser Testbed team has made history with this experiment,” said Greg Hyslop, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems. “Through its hard work and technical ingenuity, the government-industry team has produced a breakthrough with incredible potential.”
Michael Rinn, Boeing vice president and ALTB program director, said: “ALTB technology and future directed-energy platforms will transform how the United States defends itself and its friends and allies. Having the capability to precisely project force, in a measured way, at the speed of light, will save lives.”
Northrop Grumman [NOC] designed and built the high-energy Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL), as well as the low-power, solid state Beacon Illuminator Laser, for atmospheric compensation. Lockheed Martin [LMT] developed the beam control/fire control system. Boeing provided the aircraft, the battle management system and overall systems integration and testing.
Steve Hixson, vice president of Space and Directed Energy Systems for Northrop Grumman’s Aerospace Systems sector, said, “This experiment shows the incredible potential for directed energy as a premier element in early or ascent phase missile defense. The demonstration leaves no doubt whatsoever about ALTB’s unprecedented mobility, precision and lethality.” Hixson is a former ALTB program manager for the company.
Northrop Grumman said in a statement that while ballistic missiles like the one ALTB destroyed move at speeds of about 4,000 miles per hour, they can’t match the super-heated, high-energy laser beam racing toward it at 670 million mph. The basketball-sized beam focused on the target for only a few seconds before a stress fracture developed, causing the target to catastrophically split into multiple pieces.
Lockheed Martin’s Beam Control/Fire Control system focused and directed the COIL laser beam.
“The Beam Control/Fire Control System has performed with outstanding results in the most demanding mission to date,” said Mark Johnson, Airborne Laser Testbed program director, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. “The Beam Control/Fire Control System, which consists of a sophisticated suite of optics, low-energy lasers and software, has been rigorously tested in more than 140 flights since 2004, making technology history all along the way as a result the close partnership and dedication of the government and industry team.”