Laser News

The Airborne Laser program continues to move forward.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has awarded Northrop Grumman a $142 million follow-on contract for systems engineering, planning and logistics support for its Airborne Laser boost phase missile defense program.

The Airborne Laser system is a high-energy, oxygen-iodine laser and beam control system in a Boeing 747 aircraft that can detect, track and destroy ballistic missiles during boost phase using a high-power laser beam.

Additional work on the contract includes analysis, systems engineering and modeling and simulation for the chemical oxygen-iodine laser device, which causes structural damage to a target missile, and the beam control system, which senses the target, selects an aim-point, and directs the laser to that aim-point. The beam control system also senses and corrects for distortions caused by the atmosphere along the beam path.

Which isn't easy.