Looking forward to the day when tactical lasers will become operational aboard military aircraft, the United States has invited government and private firms to propose how they would go about modifying existing lasers weapons, thanks to a new Small Business Innovation Research solicitation by the U.S. Air Force.

It was in 2003 that the U.S. Air Force began testing a laser weapon with a range measured in hundreds of miles, accuracy measured in inches and a flight time measured in fractions of a second. The laser was housed in a Boeing 747-400F cargo plane with its mission as designated by the U.S. Air Force to down enemy missiles in flight. The airborne laser cruised at 40,000 feet, looking for launch signatures from theater range (non-ICBM) ballistic missiles. Once a missile launch is detected, three lasers, directed by a dual-axis mirror housed in the aircraft's nose, paint the target. The megawatt chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) then aims it 1.315-micron beam, invisible to the naked eye, that heats and ruptures the pressurized fuel tank of the outbound missile.

As first reported in Defense News.com, the Air Force has invited government and private laboratories to submit plans for an airborne high-energy laser (HEL) incorporating fewer mirrors than the current generation of large lasers, with optical configurations that typically employ a dozen mirrors or more.

With the aim of reducing size, weight and complexity, the Air Force is said to favor a miniaturized, modular approach that would place key components inside a turret mechanism housing various functions and components. These could include acquisition sensors, target illuminators and laser resonators. It is said that the Air Force has recommended eliminating the traditional split between laser and tracker line-of-sight stabilization by combining them into a single, fast-steering mirror. Also, moving the pushing functionality from the high-power path into the low-power path is recommended, especially where smaller and lighter optics may be used.

In the first phase of the program, vendors were asked to submit plans for an HEL with a 30-centimeter output aperture and a reduced mirror count in the high-power train, as well as a plan for system simulation and risk reduction. In phase II, the candidates will be asked to submit a detailed optical layout and control implementation, along with weight and volume estimates. Vendors must also develop a preliminary control system simulation, prototyping and field demonstration strategy.

It is hoped that a prototype will be ready for a first live-missile shoot-down test by late 2008.

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