War was declared on Tuesday when the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives announced it was slashing $400 million from the $517 million requested for the development of the troubled and widely criticized program in its markups to the annual defense appropriations bill. If that cut goes through, it may be curtains for the ABL, whose prime contractor is Boeing.

The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., also took a swipe at the Bush administration's cherished program to deploy BMD systems in Central Europe over the next five years. The administration requested $300 million. Tauscher and her committee cut that in their markup to around $160 million. In all, the subcommittee proposed cutting around 9 percent of the total Bush administration budget request for ballistic missile defense -- a proposed total of $764 million in cuts out of an $8.9 billion request.

Other military space or BMD programs took big hits, too.

"Worried that military space programs cannot be completed on schedule and within budget, the subcommittee cut $200 million from the Alternate Infrared Satellite System, $150 million from the Global Positioning Systems III and $80 million from High Integrity GPS," Defense News reported.

The subcommittee's decision is not the final word in the budget process, however. The bill may be heavily amended and some of the cuts restored in a reconciliation conference with the Senate. Or President George W. Bush, who has already shown his willingness to veto military funding bills crafted by the Democrats on Capitol Hill when they attempt to derail major policies, may swing his own ax on the bill.

But Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, the "big three" defense aerospace contractors most involved in the ABL, are not sitting back waiting for their congressional supporters to step in and fight Tauscher's proposed cuts. They are already out in the marketplace of ideas making their case for saving the ABL.

In a joint statement issued Tuesday, the three giant companies noted that the Airborne Laser is intended to provide a boost-phase intercept capacity to shoot down intercontinental ballistic missiles after they are launched.

They said the ABL program "remains on track to complete a lethal demonstration in 2009 that will validate the unique contribution ABL can bring to an integrated ballistic missile defense system (BMDS) as a boost phase element."

"The laser system fired effectively at full power and full duration during ground testing in 2005," the statement said. "In 2007, low-power flight tests for the beam control/fire control system will be complete and the high-power laser integration inside the aircraft will begin. In 2008, we will begin high-power system testing that will culminate in an early 2009 lethal demonstration.

"We stand on the verge of fully demonstrating a revolutionary warfighting capability," the companies said. "ABL technical risk has been substantially reduced as a result of previous investments by both Democratic and Republican administrations and congressional guidance. Given the importance of the boost-phase mission and the proximity of demonstrating ABL's capabilities, it would be imprudent to cripple or terminate this program just when we are on the cusp of demonstrating ABL's capability.

"We most respectfully urge Congress to support the full fiscal year '08 budget request for the Airborne Laser program," the joint statement said.

If the ABL program goes operational it will involve pairs of giant aircraft carrying the weapons that will patrol within friendly airspace at altitudes of around 40,000 feet, ready to track and acquire as targets ascending ICBMs.

A key attraction of the ABL concept is that, whereas the fastest ballistic missile or ABM interceptor can accelerate to 15,000 to 18,000 miles per hour, lasers fire at the speed of light, which is 186,000 miles per second.

It should also be noted that Tauscher and her subcommittee were by no means hostile to the U.S. BMD program in general. The Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance noted Tuesday that Tauscher's Strategic Forces Subcommittee "has authorized and added an additional $94 million to the Missile Defense Agency's budget, as well as sustaining full funding for all the current development, testing and deployment for near-term missile defense systems for a total $8.236 billion."

"In addition, this same subcommittee also recommended fully funding the $1.4 billion separate missile defense request by the U.S. Army to address the current missile threats through terminal missile defense systems," the MDAA said.

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