By Ann Roosevelt
The Airborne Laser Test Bed (ALTB) is preparing for another test as it continues to expand the envelope of the speed-of-light capability examining the potential of directed energy to support missile defense, officials said.
A modified 747-400F aircraft contains battle management, a beam control/ fire control system, and a high-energy Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL).
“There are many things left to learn,” Michael Rinn, vice president, Directed Energy Systems, Strategic Missile & Defense Systems at Boeing, said last week in an interview.
The Missile Defense Agency manages the program, while Boeing [BA] is the ALTB prime contractor, providing the plane, battle management system and overall systems integration and testing. Northrop Grumman [NOC] designed and built the COIL, and Lockheed Martin [LMT] developed the beam control/fire control system.
“We’re taking the test bed and expanding the envelope to double and triple ranges,” he said.
It is important to examine the capabilities of the system to find the limits and requirements for such things as atmospheric compensation and beam control. This work develops a set of data that can be used when working on other directed energy systems and to verify and validate models.
For example, ABL took only half the time predicted to shoot down the ballistic missile, so the model needs to be adjusted, Rinn said.
In February, for the first time, the ALTB demonstrated that a directed energy weapon could engage and destroy a ballistic missile in flight during its boost phase.
That successful lethal test came eight years after the scheduled 2002 Airborne Laser interception flight test. That same schedule called for three operational ABL aircraft in 2004, with another four operational by 2006.
MDA has no plans to continue the program beyond the current single aircraft that will now be used for research and testing.
Richard Flanders, ALTB program director, Airborne Laser Program, Defense Space & Security at Boeing, said, additional tests are planned this year, to include a tracking exercise planned for mid-September and a long range instrumented target test at the end of that month.
Next year, more tests are planned against missile targets. ALTB is based at Edwards AFB, Calif., and tests are conducted over the Pacific off Naval Air Station Point Mugu, Calif.
The ALTB is demonstrating its capabilities at longer and longer ranges, Flanders said.
The program office is also doing some intellectual work examining and evaluating ALTB potential against counter-air, SAMs, and even looking at shooting at ground targets.
Rinn said he’s interested in moving ALTB to the Hawaiian Islands where the test range is larger. The system could then demonstrate its capability to provide early sensor data on targets, and feed into MDA’s ballistic missile defense system. The test range on Kauai also is where Navy Aegis ballistic missile defense, Army Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems conduct tests.
ALTB can provide “very specific target data” earlier than some other sensors, Flanders said. The system has full Link 16 capability and demonstrated its ability to pass state vector and other information to Edwards AFB, Calif.