The Missile Defense Agency will probably delay the Airborne Laser’s first attempt to shoot down a ballistic missile until 2004, a year later than previously scheduled, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported today.

A top MDA official said small technical problems exist with the laser’s program, but an official with the ABL program said the problems are related to administrative restructuring (see GSN, March 14).

“The most likely date [for the test] is the fall of 2004,” said MDA Director Ronald Kadish.

There are small problems with the Boeing 747-based laser designed to shoot down a ballistic missile during its boost phase, but officials do not believe the system suffers any serious flaws, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology.

“The problems that were experienced — that prevented that 2003 (shoot-down attempt) — are not serious enough in our view, at this point in time, to restructure the program,” said Kadish.  Part of the problem relates to the system’s hardware, Kadish indicated, such as weight-distribution problems and poor manufacturing on some welds.

One program official, however, said the delay is “a reflection of our transition to the Missile Defense Agency .… MDA’s philosophy is to develop lower risk, higher confidence schedules for all of its programs, including us.  In other words, they want to make the testing program more comprehensive and extend it in case we run into unforeseen problems.”

The laser is currently the Pentagon’s most mature boost-phase intercept project, but MDA officials plan to put other boost-phase projects on the fast track, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported (see GSN, March 11).

Officials plan to hold the first flight of the Boeing 747-400 that is being modified to carry an airborne laser this summer (Robert Wall, Aviation Week & Space Technology, March 25).

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