Lchu Airborne Laser sticks to test regimen_269
The core of the existing ABL is a chemical oxygen iodine laser, or COIL, and it’s hardly man-packable machinery. The COIL system itself takes up the back half of a modified 747-400F, while the front half of the jumbo jet is given over to the beam control/fire control system.
A number of increasingly complex tests still lie ahead for the ABL, including firing the high-energy laser through the Lockheed Martin-developed beam control/fire control system and out of the nose-mounted turret. Before the end of the year, Boeing expects to do a full-fledged intercept test against a ballistic missile.
Airborne Laser sticks to test regimen
Beam control optics in the Airborne Laser system stabilize and shape the beam emitted by the chemical oxygen iodine laser en route to the nose turret of the aircraft.
Last week, in a continuing series of piecemeal tests, the ABL engaged in an in-flight trial run against an instrumented target missile. The aircraft used its infrared sensors to locate the missile, then fired a pair of solid-state illuminator lasers that tracked the missile and gauged atmospheric conditions. “This test demonstrates that the Airborne Laser can fully engage an in-flight missile with its battle management and beam control/fire control systems,” Michael Rinn, Boeing vice president and ABL program director, said in a statement. “Pointing and focusing a laser beam on a target that is rocketing skyward at thousands of miles per hour is no easy task.”
(Credit:Boeing)
(Credit:Russ Underwood, Lockheed Martin)
Given that an aircraft in flight can be a fidgety beast, the ABL’s ability to maintain precise alignments was a notable accomplishment, according to a Thursday press release from Northrop Grumman, which designed and built the high-energy laser:
ABL has to keep all of the powerful laser’s optical components perfectly positioned as the aircraft vibrates and flexes during flight…Since we were unable to fly the kind of large concrete pads used to hold a ground-based laser’s optics in place, we had to isolate the COIL’s optics from the structure but also maintain alignment. So the team developed an optical bench isolation system that isolates disturbances caused by normal aircraft operations while maintaining alignment to the gain medium, or the source of a laser’s optical power. It’s like an automobile’s ‘smart suspension’ that keeps the car riding smoothly at the same level over a bumpy road.
The Airborne Laser in flight.
Jonathan Skillings is managing editor of CNET News, based in the Boston bureau. He’s been with CNET since 2000, after a decade in tech journalism at the IDG News Service, PC Week, and an AS/400 magazine. He’s also been a soldier and a schoolteacher. E-mail Jon.