The Boeing 747 airplane that the U.S. Defense Department has modified to carry the developing Airborne Laser system will take part in Wednesday’s test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program, but it will not carry the laser, Reuters reported today (see GSN, Nov. 1).

In the test, the eighth in a series, officials plan to fire a target from Vandenberg Air Force base in California and to attempt to shoot it down with an interceptor from Kwajalein atoll in the Pacific Ocean (see GSN, Nov. 22).  The aircraft, which is not yet weaponized, will only track the target, Pentagon officials said (Charles Aldinger, Reuters, Dec. 10).

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