Airborne Laser funded

From DefenseNews

Posted 09/24/07 14:53

U.S. Missile Defense Agency Budget Funds ABL

By TURNER BRINTON

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee fully funded the Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser (ABL) for 2008, likely keeping the program on track for a critical test in 2009 in which the modified Boe¬ing 747 aircraft will attempt to shoot down a target missile.

The House trimmed $50 million from the White House’s $548.8 mil¬lion request for the futuristic weapon system in its version of the 2008 defense appropriations bill. The Senate marked up its version of the bill Sept. 12.

The House and Senate armed services committees had recom¬mended slashing $250 million and $200 million, respectively, from the ABL request. Greg Hyslop, ABL vice president and project manager at Boeing Missile De¬fense, Huntsville, Ala., said cuts of that size would push the intercept test back two years.

During a Sept. 4 ABL teleconfer¬ence with reporters, Hyslop said a $50 million cut was unlikely to de¬lay the test.

Appropriations committees typi¬cally are expected to follow the armed services committees’ guid¬ance when it comes to funding pro¬grams, but do not always do so.

Meanwhile, the Senate appropri¬ators appear at odds with their House counterparts on the Kinetic Energy Interceptor, a high-speed weapon designed to strike attack¬ing missiles in their boost or mid¬course phase of flight.

Currently the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has no concrete plans to deploy the system. The Senate panel cut $30 million from the president’s $227.5 million re¬quest for the effort, whereas the House appropriators added $145.4 million.

Installation of the ABL’s high-power chemical laser began Sept. 4 at Edwards Air Force Base in California, shortly after comple¬tion of a round of flight tests of the anti-missile aircraft’s low-power targeting lasers, the program di¬rector said during a Sept. 4 media conference call.

Hyslop said all of the key ABL subsystems have been tested, and work to integrate the megawatt-class Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Laser (COIL) will be going on through the beginning of next year. The high-power laser, which has been tested on the ground, was built by Northrop Grumman Space Tech¬nology of Redondo Beach, Calif.

Designed to be powerful enough to shoot down missiles in flight, the COIL laser will be activated next summer, and ground testing of the fully integrated system will begin in fall 2008, Hyslop said. Flight tests will begin in early 2009, and an at¬tempt to shoot down a short-range ballistic missile is scheduled for August 2009.

The ABL, based on a modified Boeing 747 aircraft, is the MDA’s primary weapon for boost-phase missile defense. The system being built today is a prototype intended to verify the concept, but it eventu¬ally could be pressed into service if needed, MDA officials said.

Delays Ahead?

Hyslop noted that the schedule of the ABL’s first shoot-down test is subject to the whim of lawmakers, who will soon determine how much money the program will get in 2008.

U.S. President George W. Bush re¬quested $498.1 million for the ABL in February. The U.S. House of Rep¬resentatives passed a defense ap¬propriations bill in August that cut $50 million from the ABL request. The Senate has yet to pass its ver¬sion of the defense appropriations bill; however, the Senate Armed Services Committee has recom¬mended that the ABL budget re¬quest be cut by half.

Hyslop said a $50 million cut probably would not affect the test schedule, but that a $250 million cut likely would result in a two-year delay.

The ABL’s recent round of flight testing involved three low-power lasers, two for targeting and one that simulated the aircraft’s main weapon. During the final test, com¬pleted Aug. 23, all three worked to¬gether to track and engage a target aircraft at a distance similar to that of a real missile engagement, the MDA and Boeing said Aug. 31. The ABL’s effective range is classified, but program officials say it is in the hundreds rather than tens of kilometers.

The Tracking Illuminator Laser, built by Raytheon Space and Air¬borne Systems of El Segundo, Calif., tracked the target, a modified NC-135 aircraft called Big Crow. The Beacon Illuminator Laser, built by Northrop Grumman Space Tech¬nology, was used to compensate for atmospheric distortion. These two lasers are part of the beam control and fire control system built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Sunnyvale, Calif.

The Surrogate High Energy Laser, filling in for the COIL that now is be¬ing installed, engaged the target. Cameras on board Big Crow veri¬fied all three lasers performed as specified. Analysis of the test data shows ABL is ready for the next phase of testing, Boeing said. This flight test mission was ABL’s 48th overall.

ABL will be the first combat air¬craft to rely solely on a directed en¬ergy device as a weapon. If it is ap¬proved for operations, it will be a part of the nation’s layered ballistic missile defense system.

The 2009 shoot-down test will be a key factor in determining whether additional ABL platforms are built and deployed. Hyslop said the ABL also could be used against aircraft and ground tar¬gets, though there is currently no funding for these capabilities.

In February, the Congressional Budget Office issued a budget op¬tions report detailing the possibility of terminating the ABL program. It said ending the program would save $330 million in 2008, $1.7 billion through 2011, and more than $10 billion between 2012 and 2017 given plans to build seven more ABL air¬craft at roughly $1.5 billion apiece.

Hyslop said $1.5 billion per air¬craft is probably a little high. MDA spokesman Rick Lehner said the budget for future ABL aircraft is unknown.