Randy wrote: > But wouldn't exploding a nuke release radioactivity into the > atmosphere for all to breathe and get cancer?
I don't think the idea is to explode it in space but I think that if any radioactivity was released in the upper atmosphere it would be preferable to cratering a city and rendering it uninhabitable for generations. It's one thing to say you are against this system, but it is not right to say it either doesn't exist or doesn't work. Thousands of people in SoCal and a few other cities have been working on it for too many years to say that. > Also, I am pretty sure the failed tests far outweigh the successful ones. I recall the last one being faked. I think you and Lama and I might be on different pages as to what we think this system is. The system I am thinking of has been in development for a long time and the early tests were top secret so how would you know or why would you think they are faked? Here are links and excerpts along the line of the system I am speaking about which detail recent successful tests of the technology (but not the whole picture, of course, which is probably mostly still secret) There were several articles in the media back in November which reported these recent tests. There is probably much more information to be found in back issues of Aviation Week and Space Technology. http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2002/december/12_24_3.html http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/search/BasicSearch.jsp (type "laser" in search block) Defense Daily | November 26, 2002 | Kerry Gildea The modified Boeing [BA] 747-400 that has been flying flight worthiness tests for the Airborne Laser (ABL) program is headed to Edwards AFB, Calif., next month for integration work to get the laser system onto the platform, program officials reported. A Boeing-Lockheed Martin [LMT]-TRW [TRW] team is developing ABL, a megawatt high-energy laser on a modified 747-400 aircraft for shooting down ballistic missiles in their boost phase of flight. Raytheon [RTN] also is subcontracting to Lockheed Martin to provide the ABL track illuminator laser, which will be one of the systems four critical lasers. Earlier this month, Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), said MDA and the Air Force would continue to integrate and test components of ABL but have no firm date when the system will demonstrate its ability to shoot down a target (Defense Daily, Nov. 5). While MDA and the Air Force are still aiming for the first shoot-down test of the ABL in 2004, Kadish said the certainty of the date is in flux at least until completion of ongoing hardware integration and laser lab tests over at least part of next year. "We're still assessing the goal of calendar year for the shootdown...I don;t think we can pin that down until we get through next spring," Kadish said at a recent Defense Writers Group breakfast. Nonetheless, the first ABL plane, which will go to Edwards for at least a year of integration work, successfully completed its flight worthiness tests over the summer and fall. That modified 747 flew equipped with modifications necessary to house the laser. During the first flight of the modified plane on July 18, the ABL took off from an airport adjacent to Boeing facilities in Wichita, Kan. The ABL, designated Aircraft 00-0001, flew a 120-minute flight plan to check out the aircraft's aerodynamic performance and system operation. The aircraft is scheduled to undergo more extensive ground tests once it reaches Edwards, program officials said. Then the tracking and high-energy laser system also will be installed there. "This system is one of the most complex engineering challenges ever undertaken in an aircraft, and our team has made solid progress," Scott Fancher, Boeing vice president and ABL program director, said in a statement after the first flight. "We've created a methodical approach to ABL development, moving through each phase after meeting appropriate technical goals. We are now at the beginning of the future of missile defense." Air Force Col. Ellen Pawlikowski, ABL program director at Kirtland AFB, N.M., said at the time she was pleased with the first-flight results. "This represents a major step forward for the Airborne Laser program," Pawlikowski said. "We're making important, careful strides toward our goal of building a boost-phase missile defense system." Pawlikowski said a successful demonstration of ABL would clear the way for progress and open the door for possibly integrating lasers onto other future platforms. Under the program team, Boeing has overall program management and system integration responsibilities for ABL, and also is developing the ABL surveillance battle management system and supplying the modified aircraft. TRW is building the ABLs chemical oxygen iodine laser and the related ground support subsystem. Lockheed Martin is building the beam control/fire control system. Raytheon also this month delivered the first track illuminator laser (TILL) to Lockheed Martin for the program. The ABL TILL is the first diode-pumped laser that has qualified for flight operation aboard a military aircraft, Raytheon said. Raytheon's TILL will be integrated with the beam transfer optics for an end-to-end test of the ABL's Beam Control/Fire Control system at the Lockheed Martin ABL test facility in Sunnyvale, Calif., Raytheon noted. TILL is an integral part of the Beam Control/Fire Control system and will project rapid, powerful pulses of light to a small section of a boosting missile threat. The light will then be reflected back to an extremely sensitive camera. The reflected light data is used to obtain information about the threats speed and elevation, it added. In March 2001, Raytheon's TILL was the first of four critical ABL solid-state lasers to conduct a successful first light; test at its High Energy Laser Center in El Segundo, Calif.
