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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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 Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:32 pm Post subject: Boeing test-fires anti-ballistic-missile laser |
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Boeing test-fires anti-ballistic-missile laser
By Tim McLaughlin
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, Dec. 29 2005
The prospect of shooting down enemy ballistic missiles has tantalized the
Pentagon for decades.
But developing missile defense weapons is costly - about $100 billion has been
spent on them since 1985 - and littered with failures.
Earlier this month, a program run by Boeing Co.'s defense business provided a
shot in the arm to the Pentagon's quest to build a layered, national missile
defense shield.
Boeing said it test-fired a laser with enough power and duration to rupture the
fuel tank of a ballistic missile. The test took place in a California
laboratory and cleared the way for Boeing to load the laser into the belly of a
heavily modified 747 freighter jet.
The company said it is now three years away from a shoot-down demonstration. In
2008, it hopes the speed-of-light weapon will be fired in-flight from the nose
turret of a 747 at a missile several hundred miles away.
Before you get too excited, though, forgive national missile defense critics
for any skepticism. For one thing, Boeing's airborne laser program is several
years behind schedule, and the remaining technical hurdles are significant.
And, as always, sharp philosophical differences remain about missile defense in
general. Earlier this year, a report by the World Policy Institute's Arms Trade
Resource Center said missile defense is irrelevant to the nation's greatest
threat: global terrorism.
"The money lavished on missile defense would be much better spent on port
security, protection of trains and airlines and other common practices for
improving homeland defense," the report said.
In another recent study, a group of physicists and engineers convened by the
Physical Science Academy took aim at Boeing's airborne laser program.
"If the ABL (airborne laser) achieves its postulated performance, it would be
capable of defending the entire United States from liquid-propellant
(intercontinental ballistic missiles) launched by North Korea," the study said.
However, the airborne laser would have trouble offering partial or full defense
against a similar missile launched by Iran, because the 747 would have to be
loitering over a tight area above the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan, the study
said.
More alarming, though, the Physical Science Academy study group takes an even
dimmer view of the airborne laser's chances of success against sturdier
solid-propellant missiles. "Defense by the ABL against solid-propellant
missiles from North Korea, Iraq or Iran does not seem possible," the study said.
Greg Hyslop, Boeing's airborne laser program manager, disagreed with that
assessment.
"The power levels we have demonstrated are lethal against all classes of
ballistic missile," he told the Post-Dispatch in a telephone interview.
Star Wars
President Ronald Reagan wanted to shoot down enemy missiles from space back in
the 1980s. Critics derided the Strategic Defense Initiative as "Star Wars," and
he got the nickname "Ronny Ray Gun" in some circles.
During the Clinton administration, the focus of missile defense shifted from
space-based systems to ground-based interceptors.
Now, the Bush administration wants to shoot down enemy missiles from the ground
and the sky. And Boeing is the prime contractor on developing both systems.
After President George W. Bush took office, spending on missile defense more
than doubled, topping more than $9 billion each in fiscal 2004 and 2005. Bush
requested $8.7 billion for missile defense in his fiscal 2006 budget.
Currently, 10 ground-based interceptors are installed in silos in Alaska and
California. The ground-based program, designed to knock down enemy missiles in
mid-course, or above the atmosphere, has a spotty record over 10 tests. The
Missile Defense Agency claims success in five of the tests. In two recent
tests, though, the interceptors failed to launch from their silos.
The program, run by Boeing, has plenty of critics. Its technology calls for an
exoatmospheric kill vehicle, an EKV, to separate from the interceptor in space,
then seek and destroy the enemy missile without explosives. Instead, the
hit-to-kill technology obliterates enemy missiles with the force of a
collision. It has been described as "shooting a bullet with a bullet."
In October 2002, for example, Raytheon Co.'s EKV hit and destroyed a target
traveling 15,000 mph at an altitude of about 140 miles.
Critics such as Theodore Postol, a physicist and professor at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, say such tests have little meaning, because the
Pentagon has yet to use countermeasures to make the shoot-down scenarios more
realistic.
Nevertheless, missile defense is big business for Boeing's St. Louis-based
defense operations. The company was the No. 1 missile defense contractor,
winning $8.4 billion in contracts from 2001 to 2004, according to the World
Policy Institute. Lockheed Martin Corp. was a distant second at $3.6 billion.
The airborne laser program in its current configuration began in 1996, when the
Air Force dedicated $1.1 billion to Boeing, Northrop Grumman Corp. and Lockheed
Martin. The contract now is valued at $3.6 billion.
The total life-cycle cost - what it would take to deploy and operate seven 747s
packed with lasers - would run more than $10 billion.
The tantalizing aspect is that the airborne laser would destroy enemy missiles
within three to four minutes of launch, in the boost phase. This is the most
vulnerable stage, because the missile has not gained full speed yet and its
tanks are full of fuel. In contrast, waiting until an enemy missile soars above
the atmosphere to shoot it down creates a number of potential problems.
For one, the enemy missile could deploy multiple warheads before being hit. Or
a simple countermeasure, such as deploying Mylar balloons, could fool tracking
sensors, leading the EKV to the wrong target.
Another concern is shortfall. That's when an enemy missile is shot down before
it reaches its target, such as a Midwestern city, but not quickly enough to
prevent warheads falling on other parts of the United States.
Ray gun in the sky
Fired from a Boeing 747 loitering in the sky at 40,000 feet, Northrop Grumman's
chemical oxygen iodine laser would travel up to several hundred miles and bore
a hole into a missile's fuel tank. That would disrupt the flight and ultimately
bring the missile down to ground before it reached U.S. shores.
In a five-second burst, the laser produces enough energy to power a typical
household for more than an hour, the Missile Defense Agency says.
Next year, the program's 747 will be modified in Wichita, Kan., so a
refurbished laser can be installed. The program's illuminator lasers also will
be tested on the ground and in flight. One illuminator laser tracks the target
missile and finds its vulnerable spot, the fuel tank. The other measures
atmospheric distortion, a key aspect of keeping the high-energy laser in focus
for lethal zapping power.
Another challenge is integrating 200,000 pounds of equipment into the jet.
"When you combine all of those technologies together, that makes it one of the
most complex things we're doing right now," Boeing's Hyslop said.
Despite past setbacks, the airborne laser enjoys good support from Congress,
said Missile Defense Agency spokesman Rick Lehner.
"Missile defense has constantly been a challenge because of the technology
required to intercept and destroy a warhead in space or on its way back down to
Earth," Lehner said. "It's a very difficult thing to do."
Hyslop said preserving the airborne laser program is vital to developing future
directed-energy weapons.
"The real power of having a speed-of-light weapon is that you can't see it and
you can't hear it - and it's there at the speed of light," Hyslop said. "If the
airborne laser is successful, it will open up a lot of other missions for
directed energy that we probably have just started to scratch the surface. This
really is the next major leap in warfare."
On the beam
Here's how the laser in a Boeing 747 designed to shoot down enemy ballistic
missiles gets its energy:
A fuel mixture of hydrogen peroxide and basic hydrogen peroxide is driven
through turbopumps capable of filling a backyard swimming pool in less than 10
minutes.
The mixture then is forced through showerhead-like devices that turn it into a
mist.
Gas chlorine is injected into the mist to produce "excited" oxygen.
The excited oxygen is propelled into another chamber, where it is mixed with
gaseous iodine.
Excited iodine results, but when it returns to normal molecular state, it
produces photons.
The photons are gathered and amplified to make up the laser beam.
Sources: Boeing Co., Northrop Grumman Corp. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:41 pm Post subject: |
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Well now that will win over all those dumb Ay-rabs who can't see the light of day, won't it?
(You remind me of when I was a 16-year-old nerd taking Jane's All the Worlds Aircraft out of the public library.) |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 9:04 pm Post subject: |
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Wonder why the article bothers you.
But the truth is you want to see the US vunerable to missile attacks. I am sure you you long for a day when Iran can hit the US with a nuclear missile.
Well just remember you don't have a vote, and we don't take advice from enemies who wish us ill.
You are still a nerd. Only now you joined the international group anti Americans who trade anti American stories and new like baseball cards cause it gives them a feeling of membership in a group. Being anti US is your fashion statement.
By the way the US has defended muslims in Kosovo , in Iraq and in Kurdistan .
It is not Arabs or muslims. It is Bathists , Khomeni followers and Bin Laden lovers . Those fascists are the true bigots ("the antiwar" / anti US movement is full of them too) look at how they treat their minorities .
They don't have a right to their war.
By the way you would never make it as most cynical poster. You aren't cynical about groups and nations that are against the US .
Alexander Cokburn is one ugly MFKer isn't he?
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brento1138
Joined: 17 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:58 am Post subject: |
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I think the missile defence shield is a great idea, I could finally get the job I've always wanted, putting my 80's arcade-game playing hours to use!!! Missle command here I come!
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