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Technology Stocks : LOCKHEED MARTIN, (LMT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tech Master who wrote (597)	11/1/1999 8:50:00 AM
From: Lee Ring	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 732

01:03 PM ET 10/31/99 Laser Could Be Key Part of Defense Laser Could Be Key Part of Defense By ROBERT BURNS= AP Military Writer= SEATTLE (AP) _ Across the street from a museum depicting the Wright brothers' historic flights at Kitty Hawk, N.C., nearly 100 years ago, a new breed of aviation pioneer is chasing a 21st century dream: an airplane armed with speed-of-light weaponry that can destroy enemy missiles in flight. The airborne laser is a little known but potentially important part of a future defense against missile attack. The work being done at Boeing Co.'s development center is part of an effort to leap ahead of the traditional approach to missile defense. Critics and doubters say it may be an expensive flop like many other attempted innovations in missile defense over the past two decades. The Clinton administration is developing two kinds of missile defense systems, both possibly using laser weapons: _Relying on the airborne laser to help provide protection against missile attack on U.S. and allied troops abroad. _Protecting the U.S. homeland, first by shooting down missiles with other missiles and later, perhaps, with laser weapons orbiting in outer space. Air Force Gen. Michael Ryan sees a bright future for airborne lasers. ``We think we've got all the physics about right,' he said recently. ``Now we need to see if we can engineer it onto the (airplane) and shoot it. That's the next test. This could be a revolutionary kind of capability.' Boeing technical specialists and managers of the airborne laser project say it has evolved from an intriguing theory to an almost realized fact. If the current schedule holds, they will have a chance in four years to test it against Scud missiles of the type Iraq launched in the 1991 Gulf War. If the tests are successful and Congress remains supportive, the first three combat-ready planes would be ready for duty by 2007, and the full fleet of seven planes would be operating by 2009. ``We still have technical problems, but we really have no inventions left to go,' said Stephen Sauve, Boeing's deputy program director. He acknowledges that the physics of firing a laser beam from an airplane are complicated, but he and others at Boeing sound confident it will work. One of the biggest technological challenges is to correct for distortion of the laser beam as it travels through the atmosphere. The chemical oxygen iodine laser, made by TRW, already has proved lethal in ground tests. The trick is getting the laser, the beam control system, computers and other gear to work together at 40,000 feet. ``This was meant to be done on Earth,' Sauve said. We're going to be doing it on an airplane.' The ``battle management' software to operate the on-board computers and other equipment has been ready since July, Sauve said, although Lockheed Martin Corp. still is working on the beam control software. In April, the program is due for what the Pentagon calls a ``critical design review' _ an assessment of the program's progress and promise and a decision on whether to proceed to the live-fire tests against Scud missiles. Physics aside, the project also faces political questions. Among them is whether an airborne laser could be deployed without violating the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, which is intended to prevent either the United States or Russia from building a national defense against missile attack. While the airborne laser is not planned to be part of a U.S. national defense system, the laser weapon might be judged by the Russians to have been built on ``physical principles' that the treaty is meant to prohibit. ``It's certainly in the gray area' of treaty compliance, said Spurgeon Keeny Jr., who was part of the U.S. government team that helped draft the ABM treaty. Now he is president of the Arms Control Association, a private group critical of U.S. missile defense efforts. Keeny's group also opposes the administration's efforts to revise the ABM treaty to permit national missile defenses. The administration has not pushed for treaty changes clarifying the legality of the airborne laser. Lt. Col. Joel Owens, director of management operations for the airborne laser project office at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., said in an interview that while the Defense Department has not made a final decision on whether the laser is compliant with the ABM treaty, he expects a favorable ruling in 2001. Kenny and other critics question whether the Air Force could get one of its slow-flying airborne lasers into position quickly enough to respond to a missile attack, and whether it could avoid getting shot down. The Air Force intends to base a fleet of laser-equipped aircraft in the United States. They would be sent on 24 hours notice anywhere in the world where U.S. or allied troops faced the threat of missile attack. The hope would be that the mere presence of the airborne laser orbiting the sky on the periphery of a potential battle area would deter an attack. But if a missile were launched, the plane could spot it with an infrared sensor, then instantly calculate the trajectory and find the range. Within five seconds of launch detection, the high-energy laser would be aimed and fired, striking the missile so early in its ascent that debris _ including the warhead _ would fall back onto the nation that launched it. The program is 28 percent completed. About $1.6 billion has been spent so far,. The Air Force estimates that the final bill for buying seven aircraft with lasers and operating them for 20 years will be $11.3 billion.