Airborne Laser Missile Defense ready for 2009 test, just in time for the Obama admin to kill it?

WASHINGTON -- After years of delay, a U.S. Missile Defense Agency project has succeeded in integrating a high-energy laser in a passenger jet that will be used to intercept a missile in a planned test next year.

The prime contractor of the Airborne Laser project, Boeing, has installed six chemical oxygen iodine modules aboard a B747 platform.

The Boeing 747-400 based ABL.

"ABL's weapon system integration team [have installed] major components of the high-energy laser aboard the aircraft, and they remain on track to reach the missile shoot-down demonstration planned for 2009," Boeing Missile Defense Systems vice president Scott Fancher said.

Officials and executives said Boeing has completed more than 70 percent of overall laser integration. They said laser ground tests at Edwards Air Force base would begin following final inspection as well as plumbing and wiring installation. ABL was designed to intercept a missile in its boost phase of launch.

"By implementing lessons learned and Lean-plus process improvements, the team has reduced laser installation time on the aircraft to about one-third from what was required when the laser modules were installed in the system integration laboratory at Edwards," Fancher said.

ABL consists of a modified Boeing 747-400F, the back half of which holds the high-energy laser, designed and built by Northrop Grumman. The aircraft's front half contains the beam control/fire control system, developed by Lockheed Martin, and the battle management system, provided by Boeing.

In 2005, MDA oversaw ground tests of the laser modules, refurbished two years later. ABL has also tracked and fired a surrogate high-energy laser toward a target missile.

"This dual-path approach demonstrated all of ABL's key technologies," Boeing said. "Integration of the high-energy laser in the aircraft will lead to ground and flight tests of the entire ABL weapon system, culminating in an airborne intercept test against a ballistic missile in 2009."