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Airborne Laser Faces More Delays
The U.S. Airborne Laser, planned as a component of U.S. missile defenses, will probably not be deployed by 2006 as had been previously suggested, the head of the Missile Defense Agency said last week (see GSN, March 12). Due to the difficulties of integrating the system’s “revolutionary” technologies, the laser will not be included in Block 2004, the set of U.S. missile defense systems to be deployed later this year, according to Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish. The Block 2004 system is set to operate until fiscal 2006, according to Jane’s Defense Weekly. “(ABL) could contribute within the Block ’04 time frame but right now it is better that we don’t plan it to,” said Kadish who is retiring this month. “I think we need patience with the ABL,” he said. “I am very encouraged and getting increasingly confident that we are going to be able to make this happen,” Kadish added (Michael Sirak, Jane’s Defense Weekly, July 7). Meanwhile, the Missile Defense Agency on Saturday held an official dedication ceremony at Fort Greely, Alaska to mark the completion of major construction of a missile interceptor base to be used as part of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program, according to the Anchorage Daily News (see GSN, July 2; Dan Rice, Anchorage Daily News, July 6).
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