The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) intends to test an airborne laser in 2021 to determine the feasibility of destroying enemy missiles in the boost phase of flight, the agency’s head told lawmakers on Capitol Hill over the past couple of days.
The agency plans to spend $278 million over the future years defense plan, which spans from fiscal years 2017 to 2021, to develop a low power laser in the 100 kilowatt range, said MDA director Vice Adm. J.D. Syring, who called directed energy a “potential game changer” on Wednesday.
“We’re not asking for a $5.5 billion airborne laser program. We’re asking for a prototype to go prove the feasibility to go give confidence to the warfighter…and to the department, that we believe it’s fiscally affordable,” he said during a Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.
The agency needs $23 million to begin the laser demonstrator development effort in fiscal year 2017, Syring said Thursday in a House Armed Services Committee (HASC) strategic forces hearing. According to Syring’s testimony, MDA has already awarded five contracts to aerospace companies for laser concepts that will help guide requirements for follow-on design contracts, which vendors will compete for in 2017.
“The request that we have on the low power laser demonstrator, if supported, will get us started down that path to do a competition for that platform in 2017,” he told lawmakers Wednesday. “Then some partner will win [or] two partners will win and we’ll downselect to one eventually, and we’ll get to a flight in 2020 with a final demonstration in ’21.”
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M) noted Wednesday that last year congressional appropriators cut MDA’s technology maturation funding, effectively delaying progress on laser demonstrations.
Syring said he had spoken to lawmakers both publicly and privately over the last few months to try to garner support for the laser demonstration. He repeated similar sentiments during the later HASC hearing.
“It is not a new airborne laser 747 project, which actually had benefit, but this is a much smaller scale demonstration to inform a future program, and that’s all,” he said, referring to the canceled Boeing [BA] YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed, which integrated a laser onto a Boeing 747 commercial aircraft.
During the SASC hearing, Adm. Bill Gortney, commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, also praised the potential of directed energy weapons on Wednesday.
“I believe that investments in new technologies for the BMDS (ballistic missile defense system) architecture such as directed energy, should remain a priority to help us stay ahead of the advancing threats,” he said. “The laser technology that Vice Admiral Syring and his team are pursuing will enhance our boost phase capabilities.”