LOS ANGELES — A flying Boeing 747 jumbo jet equipped with a massive laser gun shot down a Scud-like missile over the Pacific late Thursday night, marking what analysts said was a major milestone in the development of the nation’s missile defense system.
The test shoot-down at 8:44 p.m. PST over a military test range near Point Mugu is expected to renew debate over spending billions of dollars for a system that seemed so far behind schedule that the Pentagon decided to significantly curtail its budget last year. The test, which the Pentagon described as a success, could be a major boon to Southern California, where much of the high-tech system has been developed and tested.
“Proving this technology is game-changing,” said Loren Thompson, a military policy analyst for the Lexington Institute, a think tank in Arlington, Va. “The program’s funding has been hanging on by a thread. A successful shoot-down of a ballistic missile will demonstrate to Capitol Hill that the airborne laser has potential.”
The airborne laser is designed to defend against ballistic missiles by shooting them down while they are in the boost stage, or when they are lifting off.
During the experiment, a 747-400F took off from Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert. The laser, which was affixed to the 747 and powered by chemicals loaded into the aircraft, shot a super-heated, basketball-size beam that traveled 670 million mph to incinerate a missile that was moving 4,000 mph, the Pentagon said.
It took just a few seconds for the beam to create a stress fracture in the missile, triggering it to split into pieces.
“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, and at a low cost per intercept attempt compared to current technologies,” the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said Friday.
Although Chicago-based Boeing is the prime contractor for the Airborne Laser Testbed, much of the laser development work has been done by Northrop Grumman Corp. engineers in Redondo Beach, Calif. Lockheed Martin Corp. developed the beam and fire control system. Boeing provided the aircraft, the battle management system and overall systems integration and testing. Modification and testing of the aircraft have taken place at Edwards Air Force Base, home to many aviation firsts.
Since the airborne laser program began in 1996, it has cost the government billions in overruns with very little to show for it. Because of the poor track record, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced cuts in the program in April. And the program was not even in President Barack Obama’s 2011 budget plan.
However, the successful demonstration may change all that, Thompson said.
“Up until now, the airborne laser’s success has been theoretical,” he said. “After more than a decade of waiting, Boeing and its partners have demonstrated that intercepting and destroying a missile with an airborne laser is possible. It could erase all doubts in legislators’ mind and reinstitute the funding.”
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