CALIFORNIA KEY TO AIRBORNE LASER PROJECT

Lockheed Martin (Sunnyvale, CA) is running the program to ground test the
laser before flight tests begin. On Friday May 10 (from 2:30 - 5:30 pm) the
Global Network will hold a rally at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale to protest
their role in research and development on the ABL and the space-based laser
programs.

We hope you can join with us.

Bruce Gagnon





Air Force announces laser tests

By BOB SABERHAGEN, Californian correspondent
Monday April 01, 2002, 10:50:06 PM

LANCASTER -- The future of missile defense systems stepped closer from
science fiction to reality Monday with the Air Force's announcement of a
revised testing schedule for its new Airborne Laser weapons system program
to be tested at Edwards Air Force Base.

Monday's announcement came during a public hearing officially informing
Antelope Valley residents of the Air Force's proposed revisions to its
original environmental impact statement approved in 1997.

A handful of people concerned with the program's impact on the desert
communities showed up to view film presented by program officials and hear a
spokesman from the Department of Defense's Missile Defense Agency detail
changes.

Opposition and support for the program was equally divided between the
two audience members to comment.

"This is really the ideal place to do this kind of development," said
Antelope Valley Board of Trade Director Phil Brady, registering the board's
support of the program.

According to Air Force officials, the program is expected to pump $32
million into the local economy.

High Desert Green Party member Tom Bolema warned that increased low
frequency emissions would exacerbate maladies already suffered by valley
residents including behavioral aberrations and fetal tissue damage.

Bolema said the cost of the project was not worth the risk, especially
to develop another weapon of mass destruction.

"This can more easily be used as an offensive weapon than a defensive
one," Bolema said.

Program changes are limited to a slight increase in physical testing and
minor scheduling changes, said assistant program director Col. Ellen
Pawlikowski.

"There's been no significant change in our original plans," Pawlikowski
said of the supplemental EIS presently under consideration.

Although ground testing at Edwards will include low-powered operation of
the laser in its new 7,000-square-foot Systems Integration Laboratory, which
is in the final stages of construction, firing of the full-powered weapon
will take place during flight testing at New Mexico's White Sands Missile
Range and over the Pacific Ocean near Vandenburg Air Force Base in early
2004, said Missile Defense Agency spokesman Juventino Garcia.

Designed primarily for ballistic missile defense, the program puts a
weapons-class chemical-powered laser aboard a modified Boeing 747-400 series
freighter aircraft.

Set to begin physical testing at Edwards Flight Test Center by summer's
end, the ABL system's primary function is to detect the firing of an enemy
missile and destroy it at the thrust stage while still in enemy territory.

From the Boeing jet officially dubbed the YAL-1, a powerful beam of
light can be fired from an altitude of 40,000 feet at a variety of enemy targets.
Using infrared sensors, the ABL's wide-area surveillance subsystem can
maintain 360-degree surveillance over hundreds of miles from the aircraft
while on mission.

Upon initial detection of a boosting ballistic missile, the information
is sent to the battle control computers, which track the missile's
trajectory and send commands to another surveillance component that provides mission
personnel with a highly accurate 3-D track of its missile target.

Unlike ground-based systems, ABL will operate hundreds of miles away
from an adversary's location and will be able to lock onto an enemy missile
shortly after it lifts off.

ABL will fire an intense beam of heat that causes the missile's skin to
rupture and its fuel to explode. Since the missile is still rising, its
warhead will fall onto or near enemy territory.

Testing at the Flight Test Center is scheduled to culminate in early
2004 when Scud-like ballistic missiles similar to those used in the Gulf War will
be targeted at White Sands.

Plans call for the Air Force to operate a fleet of seven of the
laser-armed aircraft.

Public comments for the supplemental environmental impact report for this
program can be sent to:

ASC/TMIS, attention: Maj. Cynthia Redelsperger, 3300 Target Road, Building
760, Kirtland Air Force Base, NM 87117-6612.


Copyright © 2002, The Bakersfield Californian