Boeing 747 uses laser to destroy missile (includes video report)

King5 News (Seattle) ^ | February 12, 2010

[Stoat]

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - A U.S. military aircraft, equipped with an airborne laser device, successfully shot down a test missile in the sky off the central California coast Thursday night.

The high-energy laser, mounted on the nose of a modified Boeing 747-400F, was focused on the missile target during its boosting phase. The laser beam burned a hole in the side of the missile.

It was the first time that a laser weapon has engaged and destroyed an in-flight ballistic missile, and is the first time that any system has accomplished destroyed a missile as it was in its boosting phase.

"This was the first directed energy lethal intercept demonstration against a liquid-fuel boosting ballistic missile target from an airborne platform," the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said in a press release. "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 (miles), and at a low cost per intercept attempt compared to current technologies."

[Stoat]

My apologies for the editing of this article....this was done in order to remain in compliance with Free Republic rules pertaining to the posting of articles from this source. Please click on the main article link to see the full story as well as the video.

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Air Borne Laser (YAL-1) in flight. Shot from the F-16 chase. Date: March 29, 2007. Photographer: Bobbi Zapka

 

 

airborne laster testbed firing

An infrared image of the Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser Testbed (right) destroying a threat representative short-range ballistic missile 

 

 

 

Image 1 of a sequence of images shows a threat representative ballistic missile’s breakup resulting from a high energy laser engagement by the Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser Testbed.

 

 

[Army Air Corps]

Countdown to Obummer shelving the programme...

[ThunderSleeps]

Kudos and a raised glass to the entire ABL team, a tremendous accomplishment. Gives me goosebumps, this is real “Star Wars” type technology. Not to mention it looks bad-a** as he**... Some day this technology will be small enough to go into tactical escort aircraft and go air-to-air, air-to-ground, and SEAD...

[Stoat]

"This was the first directed energy lethal intercept demonstration against a liquid-fuel boosting ballistic missile target from an airborne platform," the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said in a press release. "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 (miles), and at a low cost per intercept attempt compared to current technologies."

[AndrewB]

[null and void]

ping

[dragnet2]

>>>>A Megawatt-class laser<<<<<

Built in California!

REDONDO BEACH, Calif., Feb. 12, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB) transitioned from science fiction to directed energy fact Feb. 11 when it put a lethal amount of 'light on target' to destroy a boosting ballistic missile with help from a megawatt-class laser developed by Northrop Grumman Corporation .

While ballistic missiles like the one ALTB destroyed move at speeds of about 4,000 miles per hour, they are no match for a super-heated, high-energy laser beam racing towards it at 670 million mph.<./I>

[mamelukesabre]

Whatever. Someday it will go on golf cart sized unmanned hypersonic aircraft capable of low earth orbit.

[rbmillerjr]

Thank you Ronnie “Raygun”

[Stoat]

a tremendous accomplishment

Indeed...great news!

Hopefully this will give some of the current and emerging terror states pause.

[ReformedBeckite]

Ok question if some one can answer it, how far away was the Boeing 747 from the missile when it shot it down, and what is the maximum range that the system can shoot down a missile. It appears from the article that the system can shoot something down several hundred miles away.

[Incorrigible]

Amen. They mocked SDI as “Star Wars” but even Gorbachev understood the seriousness and implications of SDI.

[Stoat]

Just as when you ask a submarine Commander questions such as “what is the vessel’s maximum depth and speed” and you only get a polite smile and an answer along the lines of “I’m sorry, I’m not able to answer that” so also I would imagine that specs such as maximum range, maximum number of simultaneous target acquisitions, etc. will be pieces of information that are not going to be divulged to the public....at least I hope that they are ;-)

[Blood of Tyrants]

Personally, I think the chemical laser project is a dead end. Israel has been working on a high power solid state laser and are getting very close to making it powerful enough to shoot down a rocket.

[ReformedBeckite]

Yeah that is what I was thinking but I thought I would ask anyway.

[ThunderSleeps]

Long-term, I think you’re right. Directed energy weapons that only need electricity (and cooling?) are the way to go. But ABL’s COIL is a step along the way. They’ll develop the tracking and control algorithms, high power optics, characterize how hard you have to hit various targets, etc. The next generation solid-state stuff will benefit from this related work.

[Windflier]

No doubt, Obama will single this program out for immediate cancellation.

[Stoat]

No problem :-) Hopefully anything purporting to be accurate specs relating to its true battlefield effectiveness will be incorrect and will be released as a ploy against America’s enemies. And I hope and pray that the NYT or another similar outfit won’t decide to ‘leak’ any official documentation that they ‘just happen to find’.
I wouldn’t put it past them at all, given their history. They will sell out America in a heartbeat, given the chance.

[Myrddin]

While ballistic missiles like the one ALTB destroyed move at speeds of about 4,000 miles per hour, they are no match for a super-heated, high-energy laser beam racing towards it at 670 million mph.

The speed of the beam is irrelevant. The difficult task is keeping it focused on the moving target long enough to do the job AND having enough power in the beam to get the job done. A pulsed beam is best as a steady beam can lose effectiveness as super-heated metal vapor blocks/reflects some of the beam. The first successful use of a weapons grade laser was accomplished by one of my co-workers in San Diego.

[dragnet2]

Ok question if some one can answer it, how far away was the Boeing 747 from the missile when it shot it down, and what is the maximum range that the system can shoot down a missile. It appears from the article that the system can shoot something down several hundred miles away.

Would you like that information in standard or metric form?

Actually, I would guess specific information in regards to effective range, target acquisition, tracking systems, generating stystems etc would be highly classified information.

I'm sure you understand.