|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
U.S. Missile Defense Laser Passes Test
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency last week successfully tested the in-flight target acquisition and tracking abilities of its Airborne Laser aircraft, according to the Space and Missile Defense Report (see GSN, July 17). The test demonstrated the aircraft tracking laser’s ability to fix on a missile with low-powered tracking beams, to adjust for atmospheric disturbances and to start the high-powered destructor laser sequence. The laser system completed these steps quickly enough to intercept an incoming missile, said the Report. The antiballistic missile laser will continue testing until its planned installation at Edwards Air Force Base later this summer. Meanwhile, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee gave the missile defense laser program a significant fiscal boost, saving it from large projected cuts in the fiscal 2008 defense budget. President George W. Bush originally requested $549 million for the program next fiscal year but the Armed Services Committee initially lopped that amount down to $299 million. In its final report, however, the Appropriations Committee restored most of that cut, funding the program at $499 million for fiscal 2008, according to the Report. The committee lauded the laser program as “vital” in the budget report, potentially making future cuts to the laser program more difficult to enact (Space and Missile Defense Report, July 30).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
