The ceremony highlighted the following accomplishments:

The Airborne Laser team in Wichita fully integrated the Lockheed Martin-designed beam control/fire control system inside the ABL aircraft, a modified Boeing 747-400F. Two solid-state illuminator lasers, which are part of the beam control device, and a surrogate high-energy laser were installed and fired repeatedly at a simulated ballistic missile target.

The track illuminator laser is designed to track a target, while the beacon illuminator laser is intended to measure atmospheric turbulence that the high-energy chemical laser would encounter in its path to the target. During the ground tests, results from the illuminator firings were fed back to ABL, allowing the surrogate high-energy laser to shoot down a simulated target. The program achieved most of the objectives of the ground tests and expects to satisfy the remaining ones in the coming months.

In Wichita, the team, including a Boeing-Northrop Grumman contingent on temporary assignment from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., added floor reinforcements and chemical-fuel tanks to the back of the aircraft to prepare the jet for installation of the high-energy laser in 2007.

The team, with ABL partner Northrop Grumman in the lead, completed a significant milestone for the high-energy laser. In California, Northrop Grumman finished ground-testing the optics that will shape the high-energy laser beam and direct it from the laser to the beam control/fire control system. The optics underwent inspection and refurbishment after the laser achieved lethal power and run-times in a ground laboratory in December 2005.

The team is preparing for another major activity later this year. The program will begin firing the illuminators in flight at an instrumented target board located on a missile-shaped image painted on a test aircraft. This activity will verify ABL's active tracking and atmospheric compensation capabilities.

"This rollout ceremony symbolizes many significant accomplishments," said Pat Shanahan, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems. "The collective team has done a phenomenal job integrating the aircraft and demonstrating its capability in ground tests. Now we are ready to go fly. We are ready to demonstrate the aircraft's ability to close the fire control loop against a flying target. Once again, we made and demonstrated enormous progress toward ushering in a new age of technology, namely directed energy weapons."

Boeing is the prime contractor for ABL, which will provide a speed-of-light capability to destroy all classes of ballistic missiles in their boost phase of flight. Boeing provides the modified aircraft and the battle management system and is the overall systems integrator. ABL partners are Northrop Grumman, which supplies the high-energy laser and the beacon illuminator laser, and Lockheed Martin, which provides the nose-mounted turret in addition to the beam control/fire control system.

related report
Lockheed Martin Verifies Integrated Beam Control Performance For Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser

Wichita KS (SPX) Oct 30 - Lockheed Martin has announced that the performance of the fully integrated beam control/fire control system for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser (ABL) has been confirmed in a series of ground tests. The tests, which verified the performance of the recently installed illuminator lasers with the rest of the beam control/fire control system, were conducted on the ground inside the ABL YAL-1A aircraft, a modified 747-400F, at Boeing facilities in Wichita, Kan.

The Lockheed Martin-developed beam control/fire control system employs two illuminator lasers to accurately point and focus ABL's high-energy laser: the Raytheon-developed tracking illuminator, which determines the range to a target and where to point the high-energy laser; and, the Northrop Grumman-developed beacon illuminator, which is used to measure the atmosphere and compensate the beam of the high-energy laser.

The tests demonstrated the ability to control the path of the illuminator lasers and to control the high-energy laser beam as it travels at the speed of light toward its target. The program achieved a large majority of the objectives of the ground tests and expects to satisfy the remaining ones in the coming months. Lockheed Martin conducted the tests with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, ABL prime contractor Boeing and industry partner Northrop Grumman.

"The results of the testing underscore the soundness of our technical approach," said Art Napolitano, ABL program director, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. "We functionally demonstrated ABL's ability to locate and track a target, illuminate the target to compensate for atmospheric disturbances and then precisely focus a surrogate laser beam on the target to destroy it."

Ground testing accomplishments for the beam control/fire control system included:

- Verifying the alignment of the optical components that guide the lasers to the designated target;

- Demonstrating the end-to-end capability to control and fire the illuminator lasers;

- Demonstrating the ability of the beam control/fire control system and the Boeing-developed battle management system to track and target a ballistic missile, using a simulated target;

- And, proving the ability to control a low-power surrogate for the high-energy laser and fire it at a simulated target.

Next, the ABL program will conduct in-flight testing of the fully integrated beam control/fire control system. The Northrop Grumman-developed high-energy laser, which achieved lethal power and run-times in a ground laboratory in 2005, will be installed in the ABL aircraft in 2007 to prepare for the program's missile shoot-down test in 2008.

ABL will provide the response necessary to destroy a ballistic missile during its boost phase, while it is still climbing in the Earth's atmosphere and before it can deploy its warheads. The ABL program is managed by the Missile Defense Agency and executed by the U.S. Air Force from Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque.

Boeing, the prime contractor for ABL, provides the modified aircraft and the battle management system and is the overall systems integrator. ABL partners are Northrop Grumman, which supplies the high-energy laser and the beacon illuminator laser, and Lockheed Martin, which provides the nose-mounted turret in addition to the beam control/fire control system.

related report
Northrop Grumman Posts Major Airborne Laser Program Achievements
Redondo Beach CA (SPX) Oct 30 - Laser systems built by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) reached significant landmarks for the Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser (ABL) with the completion of critical subsystem tests and upgrades for the high-energy Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) and ground testing of the Beacon Illuminator Laser (BILL).

After a series of 32 test missions conducted last year at the Systems Integration Laboratory (SIL) at Edwards Air Force Base, the entire laser system proved extremely robust and reliable. The SIL houses a modified Boeing 747 freighter fuselage where all elements of the laser system were assembled and tested.

The COIL's Optics and Diagnostics Subsystem (ODS) redirects the laser light out of the laser modules, reshapes the laser beam for optimal target illumination, suppresses aircraft jitter (shaking), measures the high energy laser performance and propagates the beam to its interface with the Lockheed Martin-developed Beam Control/Fire Control (BC/FC) system.

After SIL testing, the ODS was removed and more than 60 improvements were made as part of the system's refurbishment, including power distribution and alignment stabilization upgrades. The system has now been reassembled and aligned in a clean room at Edwards AFB. Recent tests verified subsystem performance and signified the laser system is ready to begin installation into the YAL-1A flight aircraft.

The ODS will be the first laser subsystem installed onboard the flight aircraft. Due to its large bench enclosures, air supply pallets and electronic racks, ODS must be installed before any of the other large laser items that comprise the entire COIL system, the world's most powerful directed energy weapon built for an airborne environment.

"These milestones are proof that we are making remarkable progress toward realizing ABL's ultimate mission of destroying a ballistic missile in flight," noted Alexis Livanos, president of Northrop Grumman Space Technology. "We're extremely proud of the work our team is doing in continuing our heritage of achievement building a wide variety of high-energy military laser weapons systems."

The ABL program, operating on dual technology paths, is pursuing the completion of a Low Power System Integration (LPSI-a) ground testing including operation of the Beacon Illuminator (BILL), a solid-state laser that is used to measure the atmosphere and compensate the COIL beam as it travels toward a target at the speed of light. Completing over 200 full-power firings in the ground tests, the BILL operates under the control of the BCFC system and meets all performance requirements relative to ground test. BILL's next step will be flight testing which begins in late 2006.

ABL's high-energy COIL laser beam, traveling at the speed of light, will provide the response needed to stop a missile in its boost phase, while it is still climbing in the Earth's atmosphere. Destroying a missile before it can deploy its warheads increases the margin for success.

Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are working closely with the Air Force and the Missile Defense Agency to develop ABL. Boeing is contributing the ABL battle management system, supplying the modified 747-400 freighter aircraft and overall weapon system integration. Lockheed Martin is responsible for the beam control/fire control system and Northrop Grumman is providing the BILL and the complete COIL system.

The ABL program is managed and executed by the Missile Defense Agency at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.

Northrop Grumman has developed high-power, solid-state lasers for the Office of the Secretary of Defense - Joint Technology Office, the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Office of Naval Research, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the U.S. Air Force, and the Missile Defense Agency. The company is a world leader with more than 30 years' experience in the development of solid-state and chemical high-energy lasers.

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