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A - B M D: Airborne Laser - The Airborne Laser Program Is Exactly What It Sounds Like: A

Air-based missile defense involves mounting sensors and interceptors on aircraft to defend against ballistic missiles early in flight. Two key programs discussed are the Airborne Laser program, which involves mounting a high-energy laser on a Boeing 747 to engage short and medium range missiles, and the Raptor Talon program during the Bush administration to mount kinetic kill vehicles on unmanned aerial vehicles orbiting near suspected launch sites to intercept during the boost phase. While these and other air-based intercept concepts showed promise, all were cancelled in the 1990s, but the technology could still be applied today for theater defense and defense against ship-launched missiles.

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62 views2 pages

A - B M D: Airborne Laser - The Airborne Laser Program Is Exactly What It Sounds Like: A

Air-based missile defense involves mounting sensors and interceptors on aircraft to defend against ballistic missiles early in flight. Two key programs discussed are the Airborne Laser program, which involves mounting a high-energy laser on a Boeing 747 to engage short and medium range missiles, and the Raptor Talon program during the Bush administration to mount kinetic kill vehicles on unmanned aerial vehicles orbiting near suspected launch sites to intercept during the boost phase. While these and other air-based intercept concepts showed promise, all were cancelled in the 1990s, but the technology could still be applied today for theater defense and defense against ship-launched missiles.

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Ichsan Tongkukut
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AIR-BASED MISSILE DEFENSE

Ballistic missile defense components can also be mounted in or on aircraft.


Sensors can be interconnected into the global network that supports a global
missile defense system. And aircraft also can carry the means of intercepting
ballistic missiles, particularly early in their flight, while their rockets are still
burning. As for other basing modes, these means of intercept can employ either
directed energy (lasers) or kinetic energy. There have been serious programs to
develop both, but only the Airborne laser (ABL) laser is current under serious
development.

Airborne Laser – The Airborne Laser program is exactly what it sounds like: a
high-energy laser mounted on an aircraft. An ABL development program was
initiated in 1992 to develop a new means of engaging short to medium range
theater ballistic missiles such as the Scud, building on the experience of the Gulf
War. The Air Force commissioned a study by Boeing to determine what might be
the best platform for a high-energy laser and its control systems. The study
concluded that the Boeing 747 with a turret mounted would be the best airborne
platform. Boeing is the lead contractor for the ABL, currently being tested.

Raptor Talon – During the George H.W. Bush administration, there was a
development program that involved mounting light-weight kinetic kill vehicles
based on Brilliant Pebbles technology on unpiloted air vehicles (UAVs), which in
turn could orbit at ~65,000 feet over the suspected launch sites of Scuds and
other missiles. This concept was called Raptor-Talon; Raptor was the UAV and
Talon was the kill vehicle.

The lightweight components of space-based interceptors – the best technology


product from the Reagan-Bush I SDI investment – can empower a UAV-based
boost-phase interceptor using Brilliant Pebbles technology. The SDI program was
demonstrating the technology for such a concept in 1992. The Clinton
administration killed that program along with Brilliant Pebbles and all associated
technology development. (As was the case for space-based and sea-based
interceptors, air-based defense concepts could not be fully tested under the
terms of the ABM Treaty.) But by 1993, SDI had built and flown UAVs for $1-2
million a copy, demonstrating UAV technology that, in conjunction with the light-
weight Brilliant Pebbles technology, would support a cost-effective boost-phase
intercept concept.
Raptor/Talon UAV Boost Phase Intercept Program
PathFinder
Flight Test

When the Pentagon killed these programs in 1993, friends managed to transfer
the UAV technology to NASA. One of the most impressive subsequent NASA
demonstrations involved a SDI developed solar-powered UAV (the Pathfinder) in
setting high altitude endurance records. The solar cells power the UAV and
charge batteries during the day and the batteries power the UAV at night.

A UAV-based boost-phase intercept capability should be revived. For the past


decade only the Israelis have pursued such technology – paid for mostly by the
American taxpayer. And they have included this concept in their architecture for
a layered defense for Israel. The U.S. could do far worse than follow the Israeli
lead.

Such a capability could be useful in Theater defense applications and for


providing a defense against SCUDs launched off ships near our coasts –
especially under conditions involving an elevated alert situation..

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