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The Airborne Laser is the pursuit of a military Holy Grail—a workable ray gun. But there may be only one thing harder than trying to perfect it: Trying to kill it. The futuristic weapon, conceived to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles not long after they blast off, stayed on the drawing board in the early 1990s. Then, it survived an effort to slash its funding at the end of the Clinton administration. And in 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gutted the program, telling Congress, "There's nobody in uniform that I know who believes that this is a workable concept."

National Security: An unclassified Defense Department report says an Iranian missile could strike the U.S. by 2015. If only we were working as hard to defend ourselves as they are to destroy us. In any discussion of the Iranian nuclear threat, the assumption is always that Tehran's target is Israel. Iran's quite mad president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has pledged to wipe Israel off the map as part of his grand scheme to usher in the age of the 12th Imam. Tehran may have a bigger fish that it wants to fry, namely us. "With sufficient foreign assistance, Iran could probably develop...

Arms Deal: President Obama signs away U.S. nuclear security and gives the Russians a veto over whether we can defend ourselves. Our nuclear umbrella is in tatters as another piece of paper proclaims peace in our time. Completing a process of disarmament and appeasement that manifested itself in the dismantling and defunding of U.S. military power that began with his inauguration, President Obama signed a new strategic arms limitation treaty with a grinning and very happy Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday in the Czech capital. How fitting this document was signed in Prague, which isn't far from Munich where...

The ABL did everything it was supposed to do. Now, the Pentagon wants to call it quits. On the night of Feb. 11, off the coast of Southern California, the Missile Defense Agency scored a major achievement by destroying a liquid-fueled ballistic missile target in flight. The important part was that it did so using a laser weapon carried onboard a Boeing 747-400 aircraft. This milestone event constituted the first publicly announced test success for the Airborne Laser (ABL). However, the success was actually the second of its kind within an eight-day period. On Feb. 3, the ABL aircraft was...

Riki Ellison, Chairman and Founder of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA), released a statement today regarding the revolutionary airborne laser intercept test at Point Mugu, California last night. His comments and observations are the following. Ellison is one of the top lay experts in the field of missile defense in the world. "Late last night, the Airborne Laser (ABL) now called the Airborne Laser Test Bed (ALTB), a Boeing-747 modified to carry a chemical based mega watt laser weapon system, successfully intercepted and destroyed two short-range ballistic missiles, one liquid fueled Scud like missile and one solid fueled U.S....

Security: An Iranian mullah once said "a world without America and Zionism" was a real possibility. Our sellout of Eastern Europe and missile defense brings that dream closer to reality. It would take only one warhead."Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?" Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked at a "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran in 2005. "But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved." He added that Iran had a strategic "war preparation plan" for what it called "the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization." A...

A test-firing of a high-energy laser beam aboard a modified Boeing 747 has been called a success, the Missile Defense Agency said. A team from Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin conducted the Airborne Laser (ABL) test Tuesday over the California High Desert. The laser was fired into an onboard calorimeter, which captured the beam and measured its power. The test is preparation for an upcoming demonstration in which the laser will be fired through a nose-mounted turret on the aircraft toward the target. In a test Aug. 10, a low-power laser beam hit an instrument-equipped missile. "This test shows...

Defense: The Air Force airborne laser program successfully completes a simulated kill from a plane able to find, track and destroy a live ballistic missile. We can shoot down enemy missiles. Instead, we're shooting down the laser program.The Aug. 10 effort was the third such test — sort of like a sniper sighting the target with the red dot of a laser without actually pulling the trigger. In early June, the airborne laser (ABL) program engaged two un-instrumented missiles. This was the first in-flight test against an instrumented target missile. A modified Boeing 747-400F aircraft took off from Edwards Air...

Defense: Overlooked in the defense budget cuts is the decimation of missile defense systems. As North Korea tested an ICBM, our defense secretary was scrapping a system that could have destroyed it with a single shot.We will miss the F-22 Raptor, perhaps the only plane that could evade the sophisticated S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system Russia is selling to Iran. Russia's S-300 system is "one of the most lethal, if not the most lethal, all-altitude area defense" systems, according to the International Strategy and Assessment Service, a Virginia-based think tank. But the aircraft we and the nation will miss the...

Strategic Defense: The Air Force's airborne laser program passes yet another test, proving "unproven" missile defense once again. The question is not whether we can get it to work, but whether we can afford not to.The news that Iran has enough nuclear material to build a nuclear weapon in relatively short order and is well along on missiles to deliver its nukes has put a sense of urgency on the proposed missile defense system slated for Poland and the Czech Republic. Fortunately, another answer to the threat posed by rogue regimes like Iran and North Korea has just passed a...

Never has Ronald Reagan's dream of layered missile defenses—Star Wars, for short—been as politically out of favor as in the Age of Obama. Nor as close, at least technologically, to becoming realized. The latest encouraging news came Thursday courtesy of the Misssile Defense Agency. The Airborne Laser prototype aircraft this week found, tracked, engaged and simulated an intercept with a missile seconds after liftoff. It was the first time the Agency used an "instrumented" missile to confirm the laser works as expected. Next up this fall will be the first live attempt to bring down a ballistic missile, but this...

EDWARDS AFB, CA - The Boeing Company and the US Missile Defense Agency successfully completed the Airborne Laser's (ABL) first in-flight test against an instrumented target missile, achieving a historic milestone.During the test, the modified Boeing 747-400F used its infrared sensors to find a target missile launched from San Nicolas Island, Calif. The battle management system aboard ABL issued engagement and target location instructions to the beam control/fire control system, which acquired the target and fired its two solid-state illuminator lasers to track the target and measure atmospheric conditions.ABL then fired a surrogate high-energy laser at the target, simulating a...

SDI: If you missed the news, which isn't hard given how poorly these things are covered, our "unproven" missile defense proved itself again last week, when a U.S. warship downed a simulated North Korean missile in flight.The test, conducted in Hawaiian waters by the Navy and the Department of Defense's Missile Defense Agency (MDA), was the 23rd firing by ships equipped with the Aegis ballistic missile defense system. It was the 19th success, including the shoot-down of a dead U.S. spy satellite last year. A short-range ballistic missile simulating a missile like North Korea's Nodongs or Scuds was fired from...

The Missile Defense Agency announced yesterday that the prototype Airborne Laser aircraft successfully completed its first two tracking tests against boosting missile targets over the Pacific Ocean on June 6 and June 13, respectively. The first test came only seven weeks after the aircraft returned to flight, and follows nearly a year of aircraft and system modifications, including the installation of its megawatt-class chemical laser. These tests mark the first time ABL has demonstrated a complete low-power engagement sequence against a boosting target, in this case a ground-launched Terrier-Lynx missile. The missile was launched from San Nicolas Island, located in...

Redondo Beach CA (SPX) Northrop Grumman, along with industry teammates and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), have begun re-assembly of the world's most powerful laser built for an airborne environment onto MDA's Airborne Laser (ABL) aircraft to prepare for high-power system testing. The integration is taking place at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., following a refurbishment by the company that involved the disassembly and inspection of the high-energy Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) after the successful conclusion of ground tests in 2005. During those tests, the laser demonstrated repeatability of sufficient power and duration to shoot down a ballistic...

EDWARDS AFB - The airborne laser ballistic missile defense system has successfully completed flight testing of its beam control and fire control systems and now moves on to installation of the destructive high-energy laser in preparation for airborne test firings in 2009. A Missile Defense Agency program testing for the airborne laser - in flight and on the ground - is housed at Edwards Air Force Base in the former B-2 stealth bomber facility. Flight tests are conducted over the Pacific Ocean off the California coast. A high-energy chemical laser, fired through a rotating turret on the airplane's nose, is...

Pentagon's flying raygun zips into budget battle By Jim Wolf Thu Jun 21, 4:41 PM ET "Peace Through Light." That's the slogan of a Boeing Co. jumbo jet built to zap ballistic missiles shortly after they lift off, using laser rayguns. U.S. decisionmakers were invited Thursday to inspect the bottle-nosed, silver-gray, modified 747 freighter on its first trip to the Washington area -- a 24-hour lightning tour that backers hope will help restore big budget cuts. The Airborne Laser, or ABL as the $3.8 billion program is known, has shaped up as one of the biggest losers so far as...

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 27, 2006 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE:BA], along with industry teammates and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, rolled out the Airborne Laser (ABL) aircraft today from a modification facility in Wichita, Kan., during a ceremony marking major program achievements on several fronts. Boeing presented the aircraft to a crowd of hundreds of government customers, industry partners and Boeing employees gathered at its Integrated Defense Systems facilities in Wichita. The ceremony highlighted the following accomplishments: The Airborne Laser team in Wichita fully integrated the Lockheed Martin-designed beam control/fire control system inside the ABL aircraft, a modified Boeing 747-400F....

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - "The Right Stuff" is going "Star Wars" as Edwards Air Force Base personnel prepare to test aircraft armed with laser weapons. Documents made public by the Air Force show base officials are preparing an environmental assessment in preparation for conducting flight and ground tests of aircraft equipped with lasers: up to 140 flight tests and 24 ground tests this year, growing to 394 flight tests with 24 ground tests in 2010. "Edwards Air Force Base is a cost-effective location for testing different laser technologies because of its facilities, its remote location, and its previous success...

EDWARDS AFB - Edwards Air Force Base officials are preparing to test laser weapons at the nation's premier flight test center. In readying for such tests, base officials have prepared an environmental assessment, which evaluates the danger of harm to the physical, natural and human environments. The testing covered by this assessment would all occur inside the restricted area in which Edwards resides. It calls for allowing up to 140 flight tests and 24 ground tests beginning in 2006 and increasing to up 394 flight tests and 24 ground tests in 2010. "Lasers are used by lots of people," and...

    Problem: How to protect the United States, Israel, Japan, Taiwan, NATO other friends and allies, and U.S. military bases all around the world, from ballistic missiles of different ranges, warheads and capabilities, including the multiple warhead type now claimed by Iran? Solution: The Airborne Laser (ABL).     It is the promise of a mobile worldwide defense against a variety of threats that makes development of the ABL important. The Missile Defense Agency has been working on this system for nine years and in 2008 will reach the culmination of that effort with an attempt to shoot down a ballistic missile from...

The threat of cancellation no longer looms over the Pentagon’s Airborne Laser (ABL) effort, but senior program officials said they are taking nothing for granted as they prepare for a missile-intercept demonstration in 2008. Several clear milestones have been laid out for the ABL in 2006 so that senior Missile Defense Agency (MDA) officials will be able to measure its progress, according to Air Force Col. John Daniels, the ABL’s program director. The ABL is a Boeing 747 aircraft being equipped with a high-powered chemical laser to destroy ballistic missiles in their boost phase. Boeing, Chicago, is the prime contactor....

Airborne Laser Completes Laser Ground Tests ST. LOUIS, Dec. 12, 2005 -- The Boeing-led [NYSE: BA] Airborne Laser team announced today the successful completion of a series of tests involving its high energy laser at the Systems Integration Lab at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. During this test series, lasing duration and power were demonstrated at levels suitable for the destruction of multiple classes of ballistic missiles. This is the second of two program significant knowledge points planned for 2005. Airborne Laser's (ABL) megawatt-class Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) is designed and built by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC). Lasing...

WASHINGTON -- Boeing has completed passive flight testing of its missile-killing Airborne Laser, or ABL, the company announced Wednesday. Now the program to install a missile-killing laser into a Boeing 747 will move back to Wichita, Kan., after the latest round of tests, which were conducted at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Boeing Integrated Defense System Wichita originally modified a 747 for the Airborne Laser program that is designed to detect, track and destroy ballistic missiles. The system utilizes a megawatt-class Chemical Oxygen Iodine laser. The recently completed flight tests measured the aircraft's ability to identify and track targets,...

WASHINGTON - Boeing Co.'s plant in Wichita, Kan., is getting $55 million in new work on the Air Force's airborne laser missile defense project, Sen. Pat Roberts said Wednesday. The Kansas Republican said the project would employ 30 to 40 engineers to install laser components onto modified 747 aircraft designed to shoot down ballistic missiles. "I am pleased that Boeing has recognized the skilled labor force in Wichita and has decided to bring this important work to their facility there," Roberts said. "It is my hope that as the (project) moves from prototype to full production, this work will remain...

EDWARDS AFB - The Airborne Laser program reached a major developmental milestone earlier this month with the first-ever test firing of the system's high-energy laser, the centerpiece of the weapons system. The Nov. 10 ground test at the program's Edwards Air Force Base test site - dubbed "First Light" - was the first time all six modules that make up the powerful laser were connected and successfully fired as a single unit. "This is a wonderful moment for the Missile Defense Agency and the proponents of a ballistic missile defense system around the world," said Col. Ellen Pawlikowski, ABL program...

WASHINGTON - A Boeing Co.-led team has successfully fired for the first time a powerful laser meant to fly aboard a modified 747 as part of a U.S. ballistic missile defense shield, officials said Friday. The test, dubbed “First Light” by insiders, lasted only a fraction of a second but gave the project an important boost at a time it was deemed at risk of cuts or cancellation.

Lockheed Martin has completed factory testing of the optical benches for the Airborne Laser's Beam Control/Fire Control (BC/FC) system. The Airborne Laser (ABL) is the first megawatt-class laser weapon system to be carried on a specially configured 747-400F aircraft, designed to autonomously detect, track and destroy hostile ballistic missiles. The Beam Control/Fire Control system will accurately point, focus and fire the laser to provide sufficient energy to destroy the missile while it is still in the highly vulnerable boost phase of flight - before separation of its warheads. The ABL program is managed by the Missile Defense Agency and is...

The missile was approaching fast and gathering speed on a column of flame. Inside a trailer, miles away, it appeared on the radar screen of a soldier on-watch. From its radar signature, he realized it was a Katyusha, a ten-foot long missile launched from a truck and capable of delivering a powerful explosive charge or chemical weapon. Acting quickly, he commanded a device resembling a large spotlight mounted on the roof of the trailer to whir into motion. After panning for a few moments, the device locked onto the distant rocket arching overhead. It shot an invisible high-energy laser beam...

The Air Force is readying the first airborne laser weapon, which could be used to intercept Scud missiles. Mark Farmer takes you inside the project. by Mark Farmer March 2003 In a starkly sanitized clean room, a stocky Lockheed Martin engineer wearing a shower cap and laboratory smock scuttles in and about black plastic curtains, talking with near-manic intensity and flashing his bright eyes and wry smile. "Want to see something really cool?" asks Paul Shattuck as he yanks back the curtains, revealing a maze of psychedelically colored optics and black anodized metal hardware. "This," he says, "is what they...

Ballistic missile defense has undergone fundamental changes over the past few months. Global politics, technology, budgets and inter-service rivalries are all playing their part in shaping the new landscape. Some-where in this mixture are the needs of the military forces and civilian populations that face an increasing threat, writes Mark Hewish In a series of recent interlinked moves, the US has reshuffled the cards in its ballistic missile defense (BMD) pack. The outcome is still uncertain, with shifts in direction occurring almost daily. In January 2002, the country's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) was redesignated the Missile Defense Agency (MDA)....