The Boeing YAL-1
Airborne Laser An airborne laser (ABL) is a laser system operated from a flying platform, as in the:
* Soviet/Russian Beriev A-60 (1981, active)
* American Boeing YAL-1 (2002-2012, scrapped)
* An American modified NKC-135A unit (1975-1984, in storage.) Developm ...
Testbed (formerly Airborne Laser) weapons system was a megawatt-class
chemical oxygen iodine laser
A chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) is a near–infrared chemical laser. As the beam is infrared, it cannot be seen with the naked eye. It is capable of output power scaling up to megawatts in Laser#Continuous_wave_operation, continuous mode. Its ...
(COIL) mounted inside a modified military
Boeing 747-400F
The Boeing 747-400 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, an advanced variant of the initial Boeing 747.
The "Advanced Series 300" was announced at the September 1984 Farnborough Airshow, targeting ...
. It was primarily designed as a
missile defense
Missile defense is a system, weapon, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception, and also the destruction of attacking missiles. Conceived as a defense against nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), ...
system to destroy
tactical ballistic missile
A tactical ballistic missile (TBM), or battlefield range ballistic missile (BRBM), is a ballistic missile designed for short-range battlefield use. Typically, range (aeronautics), range is less than . Tactical ballistic missiles are usually ...
s (TBMs) while in
boost phase A ballistic missile goes through several distinct phases of flight that are common to almost all such designs. They are, in order:
* boost phase when the main boost rocket or upper stages are firing;
* post-boost phase when any last-minute changes t ...
. The aircraft was designated YAL-1A in 2004 by the
U.S. Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...
.
The YAL-1 with a low-power laser was test-fired in flight at an airborne target in 2007. A high-energy laser was used to intercept a test target in January 2010,
and the following month, successfully destroyed two test missiles.
Funding for the program was cut in 2010 and the program was canceled in December 2011. It made its final flight on February 14, 2012, to
Davis–Monthan Air Force Base
Davis–Monthan Air Force Base (DM AFB) is a United States Air Force base southeast of downtown Tucson, Arizona. It was established in 1925 as Davis–Monthan Landing Field. The host unit for Davis–Monthan AFB is the 355th Wing (355 WG) ass ...
in
Tucson, Arizona
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
, to be kept in storage at the "
Boneyard
Boneyard may refer to:
* Cemetery or graveyard
Comics
* A character in the Malibu/Marvel Comics publication ''Mantra''
* ''Boneyard'' (comics), a horror-themed comic book series by Richard Moore
Film and television
* ''Boneyard'' (TV series ...
" by the
. It was ultimately scrapped in September 2014 after all usable parts were removed.
Development
Origins
![Dismantling the System Integration Laboratory](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Dismantling_the_System_Integration_Laboratory.jpg)
The Airborne Laser Laboratory was a less-powerful prototype installed in a
Boeing NKC-135A. It shot down several missiles in tests conducted in the 1980s.
The Airborne Laser program was initiated by the
US Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
in 1996 with the awarding of a product definition risk reduction contract to Boeing's ABL team.
In 2001, the program was transferred to the MDA and converted to an acquisition program.
The development of the system was being accomplished by a team of contractors.
Boeing Defense, Space & Security
Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) is a division (business unit) of The Boeing Company based in Arlington, Virginia. It is responsible for defense and aerospace products and services. It was formerly known as Boeing Integrated Defense Systems ...
provides the aircraft, the management team, and the systems integration processes.
Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...
was supplying the COIL, and
Lockheed Martin
The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...
was supplying the nose turret and the fire control system.
In 2001, a retired
Air India
Air India is the flag carrier airline of India, headquartered at New Delhi. It is owned by Talace Private Limited, a Special-Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Tata Sons, after Air India Limited's former owner, the Government of India, completed the sa ...
747-200 was acquired by the Air Force and trucked without its wings from the
Mojave Airport
The Mojave Air and Space Port at Rutan Field is in Mojave, California, United States, at an elevation of . It is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft, being certified as a spa ...
to
Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County and a southern arm is in Los Angeles County. The hub of the base is E ...
where the airframe was incorporated into the System Integration Laboratory (SIL) building at Edwards' Birk Flight Test Center, to be used to fit check and test the various components.
The SIL was built primarily to test the COIL at a simulated operational altitude, and during that phase of the program, the laser was operated over 50 times, achieving lasing durations representative of actual operational engagements. These tests fully qualified the system so that it could be integrated into the actual aircraft. Following the completion of the tests, the laboratory was dismantled, and the 747-200 fuselage was removed.
Boeing completed initial modifications to a new 747-400F off the production line in 2002, culminating in its first flight on July 18, 2002, from Boeing's
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...
, facility. Ground testing of the
COIL resulted in its successful firing in 2004. The YAL-1 was assigned to the 417th Flight Test Squadron Airborne Laser Combined Test Force at Edwards AFB.
Testing
Besides the COIL, the system also included two kilowatt-class Target Illuminator Lasers for target tracking. On March 15, 2007, the YAL-1 successfully fired this laser in flight, hitting its target. The target was an
NC-135E ''Big Crow'' test aircraft that has been specially modified with a "signboard" target on its fuselage. The test validated the system's ability to track an airborne target and measure and compensate for atmospheric distortion.
The next phase in the test program involved the "surrogate high-energy laser" (SHEL), a stand-in for the COIL, and demonstrated the transition from target illumination to simulated weapons firing. The COIL system was installed in the aircraft and was undergoing ground testing by July 2008.
In an April 6, 2009 press conference, the
Secretary of Defense
A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
Robert Gates recommended the cancellation of the planned second ABL aircraft and said that the program should return to a Research and Development effort. "The ABL program has significant affordability and technology problems and the program's proposed operational role is highly questionable," Gates said in making the recommendation.
There was a test launch off the California coast on June 6, 2009. At that time it was anticipated that the new Airborne Laser Aircraft could be ready for operation by 2013 after a successful test. On August 13, 2009, the first in-flight test of the YAL-1 culminated with a successful firing of the SHEL at an instrumented test missile.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) on August 18, 2009 successfully fired the high-energy laser aboard the aircraft in flight for the first time. The YAL-1 took off from Edwards Air Force Base and fired its high-energy laser while flying over the California High Desert. The laser was fired into an onboard calorimeter, which captured the beam and measured its power.
In January 2010, the high-energy laser was used in-flight to intercept, although not destroy, a test ''Missile Alternative Range Target Instrument'' (MARTI) in the boost phase of flight.
On February 11, 2010, in a test at Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center-Weapons Division Sea Range off the central California coast, the system successfully destroyed a liquid-fuel boosting ballistic missile. Less than an hour after that first missile had been destroyed, a second missile—a solid-fuel design—had, as announced by the MDA, been "successfully engaged", but not destroyed, and that all test criteria had been met. The MDA announcement also noted that ABL had destroyed an identical solid-fuel missile in flight eight days earlier. This test was the first time that a
directed-energy system destroyed a ballistic missile in any phase of flight. It was later reported that the first February 11 engagement required 50% less dwell time than expected to destroy the missile, the second engagement on the solid-fuel missile, less than an hour later, had to be cut short before it could be destroyed because of a "beam misalignment" problem.
Cancellation
![YAL-1 AMARG](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/YAL-1_AMARG.JPG)
Secretary of Defense
Gates
Gates is the plural of gate, a point of entry to a space which is enclosed by walls. It may also refer to:
People
* Gates (surname), various people with the last name
* Gates Brown (1939-2013), American Major League Baseball player
* Gates McFadde ...
summarized fundamental concerns with the practicality of the program concept:
"I don't know anybody at the Department of Defense, Mr. Tiahrt, who thinks that this program should, or would, ever be operationally deployed. The reality is that you would need a laser something like 20 to 30 times more powerful than the chemical laser in the plane right now to be able to get any distance from the launch site to fire ... So, right now the ABL would have to orbit inside the borders of Iran in order to be able to try and use its laser to shoot down that missile in the boost phase. And if you were to operationalize this you would be looking at 10 to 20 747s, at a billion and a half dollars apiece, and $100 million a year to operate. And there's nobody in uniform that I know who believes that this is a workable concept."
The Air Force did not request further funds for the Airborne Laser for 2010; Air Force Chief of Staff Schwartz has said that the system "does not reflect something that is operationally viable".
In December 2011, it was reported that the project was to be ended after 16 years of development and a cost of over US$5 billion. While in its current form, a relatively low power laser mounted on an unprotected airliner may not be a practical or defensible weapon, the YAL-1 testbed is considered to have proven that air mounted energy weapons with increased range and power could be another viable way of destroying otherwise very difficult to intercept sub-orbital ballistic missiles and rockets. On 12 February 2012, the YAL-1 flew its final flight and landed at
Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, where it was placed in storage at the
AMARG
The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (309th AMARG),[Offici ...](_blank)
until it was ultimately scrapped in September 2014 after all usable parts were removed.
As of 2013, studies were underway to apply the lessons of the YAL-1 by mounting laser anti-missile defenses on
unmanned combat aerial vehicle
An unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), also known as a combat drone, colloquially shortened as drone or battlefield UAV, is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is used for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance ...
s that could fly above the altitude limits of the converted jetliner.
By 2015, the
Missile Defense Agency
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is the section of the United States government's Department of Defense responsible for developing a layered defense against ballistic missiles. It had its origins in the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) which ...
had started efforts to deploy a laser on a high-altitude UAV. Rather than a manned jetliner containing chemical fuels flying at , firing a megawatt laser from a range of "tens of kilometers" at a boost-phase missile, the new concept envisioned an unmanned aircraft carrying an electric laser flying at , firing the same power level at targets potentially up to "hundreds of kilometers" away for survivability against air defenses. While the ABL's laser required to generate one kW, the MDA wanted to reduce that to per kW, totaling for a megawatt. Unlike the ABL, which required its crew to rest and chemical fuel to be reloaded, an electric laser would need only power generating from fuel to fire, so a UAV with in-flight refueling could have near-inexhaustible endurance and armament. A "low-power demonstrator" has been planned to fly sometime in or around 2021.
Design
COIL
The heart of the system was the COIL, comprising six interconnected modules, each as large as an
SUV
A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive.
There is no commonly agreed-upon definitio ...
. Each module weighed about 6,500 pounds (3,000 kg). When fired, the laser used enough energy in a five-second burst to power a typical American household for more than an hour.
Use against ICBMs vs TBMs
![Airbornelaserturret](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Airbornelaserturret.jpg)
The ABL was designed for use against
tactical ballistic missile
A tactical ballistic missile (TBM), or battlefield range ballistic missile (BRBM), is a ballistic missile designed for short-range battlefield use. Typically, range (aeronautics), range is less than . Tactical ballistic missiles are usually ...
s (TBMs). These have a shorter range and fly more slowly than
ICBM
An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons c ...
s. The MDA had suggested the ABL might be used against ICBMs during their boost phase. This could require much longer flights to get in position, and might not be possible without flying over hostile territory. Liquid-fueled ICBMs, which have thinner skins, and remain in boost phase longer than TBMs, might be easier to destroy.
If the ABL had achieved its design goals, it could have destroyed liquid-fueled ICBMs up to 600 km away. Tougher solid-fueled ICBM destruction range would likely have been limited to 300 km, too short to be useful in many scenarios, according to a 2003 report by the
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...
on
National Missile Defense
National missile defense (NMD) is a generic term for a type of missile defense intended to shield an entire country against incoming missiles, such as intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBMs) or other ballistic missiles.
This is also used ...
.
Intercept sequence
The ABL system used infrared sensors for initial missile detection. After initial detection, three low-power tracking lasers calculated missile course, speed, aimpoint, and air turbulence. Air turbulence deflects and distorts lasers. The ABL
adaptive optics
Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effect of incoming wavefront distortions by deforming a mirror in order to compensate for the distortion. It is used in astronomical tele ...
use the turbulence measurement to compensate for atmospheric errors. The main
laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...
, located in a turret on the aircraft nose, could be fired for 3 to 5 seconds, causing the missile to break up in flight near the launch area. The ABL was not designed to intercept TBMs in the terminal or descending, flight phase. Thus, the ABL would have had to be within a few hundred kilometers of the missile launch point. All of this would have occurred in approximately 8 to 12 seconds.
Operational considerations
![Lasertests](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Lasertests.jpg)
The ABL did not burn through or disintegrate its target. It heated the missile skin, weakening it, causing failure from high-speed flight stress. The laser used chemical fuel similar to rocket propellant to generate the high laser power. Plans called for each 747 to carry enough laser fuel for about 20 shots, or perhaps as many as 40 low-power shots against fragile TBMs. To refuel the laser, YAL-1 would have to land. The aircraft itself could have been refueled in flight, which would have enabled it to stay aloft for long periods. Preliminary operational plans called for the ABL to be escorted by fighters and possibly
electronic warfare
Electronic warfare (EW) is any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum (EM spectrum) or directed energy to control the spectrum, attack an enemy, or impede enemy assaults. The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponen ...
aircraft. The ABL aircraft would likely have had to orbit near potential launch sites (located in hostile countries) for long periods, flying a figure-eight pattern that allows the aircraft to keep the laser aimed toward the missiles.
Use against other targets
In theory, an airborne laser could be used against hostile fighter aircraft, cruise missiles, or even low-Earth-orbit satellites (see
anti-satellite weapon
Anti-satellite weapons (ASAT) are space weapons designed to incapacitate or destroy satellites for strategic or tactical
purposes. Several nations possess operational ASAT systems. Although no ASAT system has been utilised in warfare, a few ...
). However, the YAL-1 infrared target acquisition system was designed to detect the hot exhaust of TBMs in boost phase. Satellites and other aircraft have a much lower heat signature, making them more difficult to detect. Aside from the difficulty of acquiring and tracking a different kind of target, ground targets such as armored vehicles and possibly even aircraft are not fragile enough to be damaged by a megawatt-class laser.
An analysis by the
Union of Concerned Scientists
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is a nonprofit science advocacy organization based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. Anne Kapuscinski, Professor of Environmenta ...
discusses potential airborne laser use against low Earth orbit satellites. Another program, the
Advanced Tactical Laser
The Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) program was a US military program to mount a high energy laser weapon on an aircraft, initially the AC-130 gunship, for use against ground targets in urban or other areas where minimizing collateral damage is impo ...
, envisions air-to-ground use of a megawatt-class laser mounted on an aircraft better suited for low altitude flight.
[http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/product-compint-0000806204-page.html ]
Operator
;
*
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
**
417th Flight Test Squadron
The 417th Flight Test Squadron is an active United States Air Force squadron. It is assigned to the 96th Operations Group at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, where it was reactivated on 17 April 2019.
The squadron was first activated in 1989 as ...
-
Edwards AFB
Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County and a southern arm is in Los Angeles County. The hub of the base is Ed ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
Specifications
See also
References
External links
Laser test – video footageYAL-1 ABL pageSite dedicated to the Airborne laserAn animation depicting the laser interception of a ballistic missile. (AVI format)
{{coord, 32, 9, 17.4, N, 110, 50, 31, W, type:landmark_source:enwiki-googlemaplink, display=title
Military lasers
Missile defense
Boeing 747
YAL-1
The Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed (formerly Airborne Laser) weapons system was a megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) mounted inside a modified military Boeing 747-400F. It was primarily designed as a missile defense system ...
2000s United States experimental aircraft
Quadjets
Emerging technologies
Directed-energy weapon of the United States
Air Force Research Laboratory projects
Low-wing aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 2002