Boeing's Airborne Laser begins flight tests, future uncertain
By Donald Melanson 
posted Apr 25th 2009 11:28PM
posted Apr 25th 2009 11:28PM
Boeing was pretty bullish about its aircraft-mounted laser system only a few short months ago, but it looks the program's future is now considerably more uncertain, even as the sole aircraft to be equipped with the rig begins its first flight tests. Apparently, everything with the tests themselves has been going according to plan, with both the high-energy laser itself and the "beam control / fire control apparatus" along for the ride, and Boeing is even reportedly still on track for a missile-intercept demonstration later this year. The recent funding shakeup at the Pentagon, however, has thrown Boeing and its partners in the project for a bit of a loop, with the department now apparently intending to keep only one of the planes in service (instead of the proposed seven) as it transitions the rest of the program towards a purely R&D effort.
wasteful spending = spending billions on war with iraq on the assumption that they had wmd
smart spending = investing few millions in a device that renders icbms useless
wtf are the treasury guys thinkin? these lasers arent just cool toys, it's the culmination of decades of missile defense research
no, this is good, we have enough crap already, and we dont have the money to be spending too much of it anyways, let time handle it: go watch "Stranger Than Fiction", might be irrelevant but you'll smile :)
Not like any of it matters; we'll all be dead by the swine flu long before this ever reaches the battlefield
Im sure they'll keep the research going.... There is a lot of wasteful spending in the military budget, and they need to rethink priorities..
No one said this wasn't a good idea, or even needed for that matter. But, we need to face facts. We're broke and we're in a recession that could take a while before it ends. Sometimes, you have to cut programs you don't want to because you simply can't afford them. Unfortunately, this program was at the wrong place at the wrong time and fell victim to a poor economy.
The trouble with that scenario is how likely is it ICBM's are a threat to the United States? If a country were to use an ICBM they would either:
1. Send hundreds of them while we send hundreds back, ending in Mutally Assured Distruction and the end of civilization as we know it.
2. Send over the one ICBM some country managed to cobble together to which the United States would respond by blow that country off the face of the Earth. Again, why would any country do this?
3. Terrorists manage to build their own? I guess thats possible, but even an entire country like North Korea couldn't get a rocket half way across the Pacific Ocean.
4. In the style of some James Bond movie, terrorists/mad genius type criminal organization hijack Russian/Chinese ICBMS. Even genius types are a real big problem, so we should also try work out some contingencies for someone using lasers to melt the ice caps. Essentially this is such a ridiculous idea that it's stupid to try to prepare for it.
Missle shields are a nice theory and I'm sure if we ever get in a real Cold War with China, we'll probably buld one, but for the current geo-political climate, they don't make sense. A bigger threat to the United States is a truck full of gasoline and pipe bombs blowing itself up on a crowded American street.
@giant enemy crab
your comment would make sense if there was money being saved. But the Defense budget OVERALL is being upped by 4-8%
Gates wants more men and women on the front line instead of better equipped men and women.
Please, saving money is good, but A) no money is being saved because the budget is being INCREASED and B) money is being cut from the wrong programs.
most of you that have comment are pretty ignorant, to say the least. we need stuff like this, especially since Obama recently reduced our current missile defense system (they day after North Korea launched a test missile, no less). i highly doubt the swine flu is going to do any damage, and this system is just about ready for a live test. Also, we're not broke. or if we are broke, we became so long ago, since were are currently about 9 trillion in debt. we're not broke or out of money to spend; you've (giantenemycrab) never taken an economics course. and Rax:
1. no countries other than us or Russia has that many nukes, and they're not going to do that any time soon. and besides, it would be tens of thousands, not hundreds. you apparently don't know much about this stuff.
2. if it was only was missile, i think we would be able to destroy it. and i doubt we would literally blow them off the map in retaliation. Obama would be more likely to bake them a cake and go bow to their leader.
3. terrorists won't build a missile, and probably not even a nuke. more likely they'd sneak uranium/plutonium into the US and use it in a dirty bomb, since they don't have the tech for missiles and nukes. also, North Korea aren't really terrorists. they're a full-fledged country. and you can bet they will continue their missile development until they are capable of reaching around the world. this might not take as long as you think.
it's not likely and and ICBM will be coming our way, but i'd rather be prepared than not. i'd rather have a missile defense system and not need it, than need it, and not have it. besides, and the car/truck bomb you describe is also unlikely, but also much less damaging than an atomic bomb. besides, you do know that gasoline doesn't explode with the concussive force that the pipe bombs would, which is what does the damage, right? gasoline is used for movie explosions since it looks spectacular, but doesn't cause much damage. just shows how little you know about all this.
I agree with Obama baking a cake for any foreign nation that tries to nuke us. It will have colored dinosaur sprinkles as well as candles! Blow out the candles Kim!
That's what you get for electing a socialist president
Frickin' lasers!
oh, and pew pew pew!
pew pew pew
Kill the healthcare, fund the lasers.
How about kill the trillion dollar deficit stimulus instead?
Kill Obama's reckless spending with the laserz plane.
No worries, it and Lockheed's Laser program will survive quietly for a bit. Some major things are happening in the Laser fields lately.....
I once worked on early laser program in the Regan Star Wars Era (was only in my late 20's) though been with the C-17 Airlifter since '86. Lift Big baby!
talk about putting all of your eggs in one basket!!!
but yah, im going to have to agree with kangbp.nyc that this technology is what a lot of this missle defense tech. has been leading up to, its the next step in a secure def. against any icbm threats to the US... the us gov. needs to change their priorities in funding and fund this tech.!
But these eggs go pew pew pew.
It's the Crossbow Project from Real Genius! Awesome. :)
Popcorn for the whole neighborhood!!!
lol - I was fully expecting a Real Genius graphic when I loaded the story.
Disappointed!
It took Kent this long to make that mirror?
Obama said he'd kill military spending and it seems our liberal congress is more than willing to oblige. Political jabs and gains at the expense of national security.
He isn't doing anything, Gates is the one who makes the budget. But even so, he INCREASED spending on the military. Changed it yes, but increased it overall. Some programs get less, some get more. But as a whole, the military gets more.
So much for being against the military.
Anyone that says the US does not have room to cut back on military spending is out of their paranoid mind. The US ranks #1 on the planet for military spending. We spend more than the next 21 highest spending countries combined. While its nice to have all the options we do on the battel field. Do we really need big freak'n lasers in such challenging economic times?
Military spending 2008(available on Wiki)
1 United States 651,163,000,000
2 People's Republic of China 70,242,645,000
3 France 61,571,330,000
4 United Kingdom 56,889,000,000
5 Japan 48,860,000,000
6 Germany 45,930,000,000
7 Italy 40,050,000,000
8 Russian Federation 34,000,000,000
9 India 32,700,000,000
10 Saudi Arabia 31,050,000,000
11 Turkey 30,936,000,000
12 South Korea 28,500,000,000
13 Brazil 23,972,836,012
14 Spain 18,974,000,000
15 Iraq 17,900,000,000
16 Canada 16,061,762,400
17 Australia 15,744,500,000
18 Israel 13,300,000,000
19 Netherlands 12,000,000,000
20 Poland 11,791,000,000
21 Republic of China (Taiwan) 10,500,000,000
Here's the problem with cutting spending. We are in the middle of a recession with lots of lost jobs, so what does the President do? He passes stimulus bills to help create some. Great, even though there is a lot of pork barrel spending in those plans that the voters will hopefully remember next time they elect their senators, he added nothing for military spending.
Why is that bad? Because a lot of that money goes to R&D and construction, creating many jobs. His cuts to funding are causing many contractors to have to layoff. Look at the Joint Strike Fighter project that is getting cut down... 60,000 jobs in the crapper.
Fantastic.
Yes, by all means, let's continue spending untold amounts of money on "national security" (whatever the fuck that means). Grow up, learn that we're in deep shit economically and understand that "Liberals" aren't out to kill the USA. Just because you don't agree with a policy or policies doesn't meant they're out to fucking kill you.
i don't know about you guys, but if an ICBM was headed for the US, i'd like to be able to blow it up. better to have the lasers and not need them, than to need them and not have them. besides, most economists think this is the pretty much as low as the economy will sink, so it can only be uphill from here on.
Do people realize that the reason the US spends more money on the military than anyone else in the world is that every time there's trouble, whether it's a dictator, terrorists, or even natural disaster, the world looks to the US to take care of it? The rest of the world can play with their expensive social experiments because they haven't been forced to put that money into a real, effective military that can deal with global threats of every kind.
The US is equipped to fight multiple wars on multiple continents not because it wants to fight them, but because it must be prepared to do it. Because nobody else is willing to pay the bill. That's why US spending is so much more. It leads the way in military advancement and preparedness because no other countries are even close to filling that role. They've got government funded social programs to pay for - the US will take care of the 'warmongering' for them.
The US could cut spending, pull back troops, and the next time disaster strikes or some country decided to flex their muscles in europe / asia, the US can just let the phone ring when the world comes calling. Of course the same people whining about the well-funded US military will be whining when it's not bailing their butts out.
also, part of the reason the US spends more on the military is that we have the highest GDP and highest GDP per Capita of any country in the world by a good margin. it only makes sense that we spend more on our military.
@something clever:
First, let's acknowledge that you've got a point: the USA do clearly most of the job when there are problems around the world (Afghanistan v2, etc...).
But, don't say that "every time there's trouble, whether it's a dictator, terrorists, or even natural disaster, the world looks to the US to take care of it" because sometimes USA take care of it even when nobody asks, just because it's good for them (Irak v3, Chilean coup d'état?, etc?).
Let's say that USA are great when resolving real problems (WW1, WW2, Afghanistan v2, Kosovo, etc...), but sometimes it seems that their enthusiasm is a little bit too strong (Irak v3, etc...)...
@Deluxe
The US had to take the lead in Iraq the 2nd time around because the UN, after voting for numerous resolutions to 'condemn' Iraq, wasn't gong to do a dang thing. Know why? They were too busy making money off a corrupted oil for food program (look up Kojo Annan - the son of the then UN Secretary General). And the other so-called allies were making money selling arms and other items to Iraq, either for straight up cash or using the oil for food program. The UN and the rest of the world postured - correctly - that Iraq must be stopped. Only the US had the courage to pay the politically unpopular price of taking action.
BTW, most probably don't know, because it doesn't fit the "no WMD in Iraq", but after the war the US quietly moved 550 tons of yellow cake to canada.
Finally, if Obama or clinton had been the one to remove saddam from power, we'd be hearing about how millions of people were liberated from a regime that imprisoned, tortured, and killed its citizens. We'd hear about the real mass graves, the rape rooms, saddam's sons putting people through industrial plastic shredders. We'd hear how wonderful it is to have a budding democracy in the middle east. Instead, because it was lead by a republican (who I'm no fan of), it's called an illegal, unjust war.
I must concede there's something clever in the post above.
i can haz lazer too?
Should have been:
Boeing's Airborne Laser begins chargin' its lazarz, BLARGH uncertain
We should just go back to the Sprint and Spartan systems.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vq4mWyYl2Y
true
Dont worry folks Hope and Change will knock down incoming ICBM's with his blazing teleprompters.
We will never need any type of laser or even defense... Obama's roll over and play dead tactics will save us!
Now they only need to create flying sharks.
Macross canon, fire!
Despite all the money the US has to spend on these new laser weapons, the potential enemy just has to put a mirror on their missiles ;)
A conventional mirror would have no appreciable effect on a laser this powerful.
One plane?
I imagine that a dozen chrome-plated missiles should take care of it.
I interned at Boeing in 2000 during the construction of this. Whether we need it or not, it is pretty impressive to see up close. When I was there, the laser wasn't installed yet, they just had the nose off. They were installing the single piece titanium plasma exhaust vent, which was cool.
Ummm --- mentioning mirrors or polishing or chrome (CHROME!) as shielding against serious lasers demonstrates significant ignorance. Just so you know.
Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. -- Mark Twain
Speaking of ignorance, it was Abraham Lincoln who said that.
Oh I just love the irony :)
wicked butchered quote..."It is better to sit in silence and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt" is the correct quote
Alan Lau... LMAOOO!!!!!!!! Touche' ;)