US Department of Defense, The Missile Defense Agency announced today that the prototype Airborne Laser (ABL) aircraft successfully passively tracked a vertically dynamic target for the first time.
During a test on May 1, the modified Boeing 747-400 used its passive sensors to autonomously locate, acquire, target and track an afterburning F-16 jet fighter moving vertically at a rapid rate of ascent.
This test represents a significant milestone in ABL’s flight test progress, and demonstrates a number of key system capabilities that will lead to a lethal demonstration against a boosting missile in 2009.
The ABL is currently undergoing a series of flight tests that will demonstrate the aircraft’s complex beam control/fire control system prior to high-energy laser installation, which will begin later this year.
ABL is the Agency’s primary boost-phase missile defense element, and is being developed to destroy ballistic missiles of all classes in their boost phase of flight using its megawatt-class high-energy laser.
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