Boeing [BA] earlier this month installed a high-energy chemical laser designed to disable ground objects either with lethal and non-lethal power on a modified C-130H transport aircraft in preparation for a series of demonstration flights next year, the company said yesterday.
The company’s activities fall under the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) advanced concept technology demonstration program, a Department of Defense-sponsored effort to show the feasibility of using the aircraft-mounted directed-energy weapon system effectively to destroy, damage or disable ground targets with little to no collateral damage in battlefield settings such as urban areas (Defense Daily, Oct. 16, 2006).
“The installation of the high-energy laser shows that the ATL program continues to make tremendous progress toward giving the warfighter a speed-of-light, precision engagement capability that will dramatically reduce collateral damage,” Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems, said in the company’s Dec. 10 release. “Next year, we will fire the laser at ground targets, demonstrating the military utility of this transformational directed energy weapon.”
Installation of the high-energy laser on the C-130H was completed Dec. 4 at Kirtland AFB, N.M., Boeing said. The laser, including its major subsystem, a 12,000-pound integrated laser module, was positioned into place aboard the aircraft and aligned with the previously installed beam control system that is designed to direct the laser beam to the target.
With the high-energy laser now installed, Boeing said its sights are on the upcoming series of tests that will culminate in 2008 with a demonstration during which the laser will fire while in flight at mission-representative ground targets. The ATL design is such that the laser is fired through a rotating turret that extends through the C-130H’s belly.
Paving the way for the installation of the high-energy laser were flight tests of a surrogate, low-power laser that were completed in June at Kirtland, Boeing said. These involved using the ATL’s flight-demonstration hardware [e.g., beam control system; sensors; and weapon system consoles] and the surrogate laser to find and track moving and stationary ground targets, the company said.
Boeing said the surrogate laser hit its intended target in each of more than a dozen tests.
Also in preparation for the aircraft integration, Boeing said it concluded laboratory testing of the high-energy laser at Kirtland’s Davis Advanced Laser Facility in late July, demonstrating reliable operations in more than 50 firings.
Boeing’s ATL industry team includes L-3 Communications [LLL]/Brashear, maker of the C-130’s laser turret, and HYTEC, Inc., manufacturer of structural elements of the ATL weapon system.
The Air Force’s top weapons buyer said in October the air service intends to earmark greater funding for directed energy systems such as the ATL in its next major multiyear budget plan, the FY ’10 program objective memorandum, so that these systems can move from technology demonstrations to more robust operational systems next decade (Defense Daily, Oct. 12).