WASHINGTON, July 30 (UPI) -- Boeing announced Monday that, working with its partner companies and with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, it has finished work on fitting its high-energy laser on the Airborne Laser aircraft and has already started running exercises on the laser with its chemical fuel at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Boeing said in a statement that its engineers were pumping the laser's operating chemicals through its mechanism to check out the system's "sequencing and control." Upon completion of these measures, the engineers will activate the laser on the aircraft for the first time, the company said.
"The Airborne Laser team has done a great job preparing the high-energy laser for these fuel tests, which will lead the way toward achieving 'first light' of the laser aboard the aircraft," said Mike Rinn, Boeing vice president and ABL program director. "Once again, we made and demonstrated enormous progress toward ushering in a new age of directed-energy weapons."
Boeing said the installed laser would then be put through a series of firing tests to check out its power and length of firing time when operated at levels intense enough to hit and knock out different kinds of ballistic missiles.
Following these tests, the laser "will then be fired through the aircraft's beam control/fire control system, including the nose-mounted turret," the company said. After that, the engineers will carry out "functional check flights of the entire ABL weapon system," it said.
Once these procedures are completed, the ABL is scheduled to carry out its first full operational test to try to kill a ballistic missile in flight next year.
Boeing described the ABL aircraft as a modified Boeing 747-400F that carried the high-energy laser in the rear section of its fuselage. The laser was designed and built by Northrop Grumman.
The forward section of the ABL 747's fuselage carries the weapon's beam control/fire control system, which was built by Lockheed Martin, and the battle management system constructed by Boeing, which also serves as the prime contractor for the ABL system, designed to knock out all types of ballistic missiles, including ICBMs, in their initial boost phase.
Aegis SPY radars ready for new Oz Aegis AWD.
Lockheed Martin announced in the Australian capital, Canberra, Tuesday that it had finished work on making two new SPY-1D(V) radar arrays for Australia's first Hobart-class Air Warfare Destroyer. Another two systems are still in production.
"The Air Warfare Destroyer is a top priority for the Australian navy, and we are absolutely committed to delivering Aegis capability on time," said Paul Johnson, managing director of Lockheed Martin Australia.
"The SPY-1D(V) arrays are the visual icon of Aegis, and the success of the array production is setting the pace for the open architecture Aegis Weapon System development that will be the backbone of Hobart and the following Air Warfare Destroyers," he said.
Lockheed Martin said in a statement that Hobart's SPY-1D(V) arrays later would be checked out and installed along with the Hobart's Aegis Weapon System.
The company described the SPY-1D(V) as "the latest and most capable version of the SPY-1 family of radar." It said the SPY-1 multifunction phased array radar system would carry out functions that previously had to be performed by a much larger number of separate radar sensors.
Lockheed Martin said the SPY-1 was capable of long-range volume search, fire control-quality tracking and ballistic missile defense. It had an S-band frequency range that allowed it to operate at full capacity in all weather conditions, and it could carry out "all major radar functions" at the same time as it gave S-band midcourse guidance for semi-active missiles, including the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile and the U.S.-built Standard Missiles 2 and 3 for use against ballistic missiles.
Lockheed Martin said the Hobart's Aegis Open Architecture Weapon System was the most advanced tracking and locating radar in the world and that it also would be fitted before the end of the year onto the USS Bunker Hill within the U.S. Navy's Cruiser Modernization Program.
The company said the Aegis OA system was designed to operate with "commercial off-the-shelf components integrated within an open architecture support" so that it could be improved easily as new systems with more advanced capabilities came on the market.
Lockheed Martin noted the Aegis Weapon System is already being operated on 86 warships around the world, with another 20 warships due to be fitted with it. Aegis warships are operated by the United States, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Norway and Spain.
