Airborne Lasers: The Cutting Edge of Directed Energy Weaponry

Airborne Laser (ABL), a U.S. Air Force program aimed at destroying enemy ballistic missiles as they rise off their launch pads, could be deployed against conventional aircraft and even ground targets, according to prime contractor Boeing.

During a Sep. 4 teleconference, Greg Hyslop, Boeing Airborne Laser vice president and program manager, said the Air Force is developing operational concepts for the beam weapon that could include “other missions and targets.”

“The Air Force is looking at our effectivity against aircraft; this is on the cutting edge of directed energy,” Hyslop said. “We could also use [ABL] for air-to-ground, but at this point we lack the appropriate level of sensing capability and would need to receive target coordinates from somewhere else. In air-to-ground mode the ranges are a lot shorter, so we’d have to determine how lethal we are and at what ranges. This is something we’ll probably look at after the lethal demonstration.”

Under the Missile Defense Agency’s plan, the Air Force would field a squadron of seven ABL aircraft — Boeing 747 freighters equipped with megawatt-class chemical lasers operating in the infrared wavelength.

To be in position to engage nuclear-tipped North Korean missiles, it is assumed that some or all of these aircraft would be based in Japan. Plans to do this are still in the works, however. According to Hyslop, the Japanese have “expressed great interest” in ABL, and “we’re looking for ways that Japanese government and industry can participate.”

The ability to recharge the chemical laser in a “forward setting” remains a challenge, Hyslop said, adding that a portable chemical mixing facility deployable by C-17 transport aircraft is under development.

Hyslop said Boeing, along with subcontractors Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, recently demonstrated ABL’s battle management and beam fire-control systems, with the tests concluding on Aug. 23.

The next step is to install the high-energy laser, a process expected to take until early next year. Starting next summer, the plan is to activate each ABL subsystem one at a time, with flight tests beginning in 2009.

All of this is expected to culminate in the first live-fire test of ABL in August, which will pit the system against an actual short-range ballistic missile.

Funding issues continue to dog the program, however, and Hyslop said the date of the “lethal demonstration” could slip by two years or more if the president’s $548 million budget request for the program is not met.

In May, the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee recommended reducing ABL’s fiscal 2008 budget by $400 million, although the full committee reduced that figure to $250 million. In its version of the bill the Senate Armed Services Committee has recommended that $200 million be cut from ABL.

“The level of [proposed] cuts would significantly delay our shoot-down,” Hyslop said. “We need the president’s budget to stay on track … these will be expensive airplanes.”