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From: weems%umass-cs@UDel-Relay@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Laser Weapons
Message-ID: <4145@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 11-Aug-83 20:55:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.4145
Posted: Thu Aug 11 20:55:00 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Aug-83 23:37:51 EDT
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From:  Charles Weems <weems%umass-cs@UDel-Relay>

>From Science News, August 6, 1983:

'Major milestone' in lazer weapons tests
----------------------------------------

    In the first successful tests of its kind, an airborne laser recently
"defeated" missiles launched at it from another aircraft.  The U.S. Air
Force tests, announced July 25, marked completion of a series of experiments
involving the Airborne Laser Laboratory.  This flying test station, which
the Air Force stresses is highly experimental and not a prototype weapon 
system, disabled five AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air heat-seeking missiles,
causing them to veer off target and eventually crash-land.

    The challenge was to target and track an incoming missile precisely so
that the infrared (carbon dioxide gas) laser could continuously illuminate
one point on the missile's exterior long enough to burn through and destroy
its sensitive guidance components inside.  Initial trials two years ago
ended in failure.  Even this time, the Airborne Laser Laboratory's first
eight attempts were unsuccessful.  Explains Major Sam Giammo of the Air
Force Systems Command, "We'd fire one [Sidewinder], fine tune the equipment
a little bit, then fire another."  This was over a period of two weeks at the
end of May.  "But once we got the equipment calibrated," he said, "we were
five for five."

    The Air Force is calling the achievement "a major milestone" in its
high energy laser program.  It is one of the most visible advances in
research by the Department of Defense (DOD) on directed-energy weaponry.
Although this particular effort began long before DOD outlined its Space
Laser Program Plan last year, Giammo acknowledged the technology 
demonstrated in these tests would apply to other DOD laser programs.

    Over the past year, DOD has expressed growing interest in laser weapons --
particularly for defensive purposes; for use against incoming enemy missiles
and for protection of important data-gathering satellites in space.
Describing his agency's new posture before the Senate subcommittee on
strategic and theater nuclear forces earlier this year, Undersecretary for
Directed Energy Weapons Major General Donald Lamberson said DOD currently
expects to spend $900 million for research on space lasers during the next
five years, prior to beginning extensive demonstrations in orbit.  Roughly
$600 million will go for programs to investigate the technical feasability
and cost effectiveness of using lasers in space.  Three programs directed
by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) -- ALPHA, LODE
and TALON GOLD -- will dominate these efforts.

    Lamberson says ALPHA is investigating the prospects for high-powered
mid-infrared-wavelength devices, though some shorter wavelength laser
systems are being looked at too.  LODE is examining the feasability of
producing very large, precision mirrors to direct laser beams at their
targets.  It is also focusing on the difficulties of directing these beams
at high brightness levels.  TALON GOLD is concentrating on problems 
associated with locking a laser beam onto a moving target from space --
a target that will likely be moving at five or more times faster than the
Sidewinders encountered in the recent Air Force tests.

    The Army's role in the Space Laser Program is more modest.  Focusing
on ballistic-missile defense, it is chiefly investigating the extent to
which missiles can be "hardened" (protected) against laser radiation.  The
Army is also concentrating on short-wavelength lasers, the type expected
to prove most useful in space operations.  For its part, the Air Force is
studying the hardening of aircraft, satellites and other potential targets
for their survival under an attack by enemy weapons, including lasers.

    Responding to a growing public concern over further militarization of
space, DARPA Director Robert Cooper told the Congress on March 23 of this
year, "We are conducting research and planning related to space weaponry,
but I emphasize that no commitment has been made to acquire space-based
weapons.  And we will proceed only if our national security is so
threatened."                                            --- J. Raloff


Chip Weems