1. An Assessment of the Airborne Laser (ABL) Tao B. Schardl December 12, 2007 Pictures from: (Left) http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/abl/index.html; (Reight) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airborne_laser

2. Outline Overview of ABL – System Description – Technical Challenges – Previous Development Recent Developments Schedule Budget Concept of Operations Program Assessment

3. Overview of ABL Ballistic Missile Defense System Destroys TBMs from range with High- Powered Laser Capable of Destroying TBMs during Boost Phase Currently in prototyping phase Picture From: http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/abl/pics-clips/index.html

4. System Description Megawatt-class COIL Beam Control/Fire Control System Battle Management System Nose-Mounted Turret Active Ranging System

5. Technical Challenges Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Laser Adaptive Optics Cooperation between Beam Control/Fire Control/Battle Management Systems Stable optical benches; “benchless” optical systems Weight

6. Previous Development Airborne Laser Laboratory, 1980’s Invention of COIL, 1977 Project begins in November 1996 – Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Moved under MDA in 2001 – Adopted “capabilities-based” approach in 2002 Program restructured in February 2004

7. Recent Developments 2005 – First motion of turret in flight 2005 – Ground based demonstration of COIL 2007 – Successful testing of beam control, fire control, and battle management systems in flight Image from: http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/abl/pics-clips/index.html

8. Schedule Block 2008 – Integrate COIL with aircraft and existing systems – Ground tests, flight tests – Lethality Demonstration, 2009 Block 2010 – Design of second aircraft, initial fabrication of weapon components – Initial capability decided

9. Budget Traditionally well-funded by Congress FY2008 – Bush Administration requested $548.8 million – House defense authorization bill decrease request to $298 million – Senate version placed request at $348 million Recent demonstration in Congressional lack of faith in ABL – Favoring kinetic kill vehicles

10. Concept of Operations Number of aircraft to acquire – Number needed to effectively cover theater for extended time – Number needed to cover multiple theaters Highly visible, lingering near enemy territory for extended periods of time Need for many aerial refuelings Use as anti-satellite weapon

11. Program Assessment Valuable for generated research in optics, lasers Notable progress in project recently towards 2009 lethality demonstration Serious CONOP problems Losing support from Congress, MDA Still much progress to make after completing first aircraft

12. Questions?