Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The Airborne Laser, Missile-Zapping Laser Plane of the Future, Is No More (Due to Pentagon Budget Cuts)




The Airborne Laser Test Bed - Missile Defense Agency

Discovery News - The Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser Test Bed (ALTB) is dead after a long battle with Pentagon budgetary priorities and Congress. ALTB is best remembered for being a far-out directed-energy beam missile defense interceptor that dodged cancellation by the SecDef himself in 2010 by successfully zapping a test missile from the sky, earning it $40 million more and a new lease on life.            More

And from Danger Room:

Yes, it sounds completely crazy: A 747 jumbo-jet, embedded with a powerful laser, that can shoot missiles right out of the sky. But for sixteen long years, the U.S. military tried to turn that idea — called the Airborne Laser Test Bed — into a reality.

Now, after myriad ups and downs, the Airborne Laser (ABL) has finally been put out of its misery. Last week, the Missile Defense Agency announced that the ABL completed its final test flight.

The jet will now be dispatched to a locale from which planes don’t typically return: The Air Force’s Maintenance and Regeneration Group, also known as “The Boneyard.”

There, the ABL will join more than 4,200 other outdated or useless vessels. The sorry vessels in this plane purgatory are often picked to pieces, their various hardwares used for spare parts. Others are kept intact, waiting to be used in a museum exhibit or on a movie set.             More