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U.S. Plans: Airborne Laser System Is Overweight; Mission Expands Too The U.S. Missile Defense Agency recently expanded the Airborne Laser’s requirements — the system must now be able to down intercontinental ballistic missiles — but the laser is already 5,000 pounds overweight and contractors have only produced six of 14 modules, Defense News reported today (see GSN, Jan. 6). The system must weigh less than 175,000 pounds to be carried by a modified Boeing 747 cargo plane, but the first six components already weigh 180,000 pounds, U.S. officials said. The system can still operate without the full complement of modules, but the laser beam would be weaker and the plane would need to fly closer to targets to be effective, according to Kumar Patel, a University of California physics professor. Pentagon officials met Feb. 26 to discuss reducing the weight of the components, improving the laser’s optics and boosting the output of the existing components. The weight issues would not affect the program’s survival, however. “The promise of ABL in the larger context of U.S. strategic defense has, at this point, convinced everyone that it’s got to move ahead into fielding,” a senior Pentagon official said (Ratnam/Kaufman, Defense News, March 3). Northrop Grumman’s Space Technology sector, meanwhile, delivered the Beacon Illuminator Laser to the Airborne Laser project. The newly delivered component is designed to measure atmospheric changes that could throw off the Airborne Laser’s beam (Space & Missile, March 3).
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