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Air Force grants awards for airborne laser research The U.S. Air Force has awarded contracts to several U.S. firms for research and development of applications for an airborne laser. In all, $23 million worth of contracts was awarded in the latest round. Georgia Technology Applied Research Corp., based in Atlanta, was awarded a $4.5 million contract. Raytheon Electronic Systems, Tucson, Ariz, was awarded a $1 million contract. Textron Systems, Wilmington, Mass., was awarded a $13 million contract. "Each contract provides for research and development support in the area of aircraft directed energy laser applications," a Defense Department statement said. The contracts are expected to be completed in 2006. The airborne laser is expected to begin partial deployment by 2008. Meanwhile, an Israeli study has formulated a model to ensure the effectiveness of airborne laser weapons being developed by the United States. The model was completed by a group of scientists from Ben-Gurion University who worked on a project for the U.S. Air Force. The air force has been developing the airborne laser for use against ballistic missiles. The Ben-Gurion University study developed a model that factored air turbulence and suspended aerosol particles in determining the broadening of a laser beam. The wider the beam the weaker and less effective the laser weapon. Natan Kopeika, a professor who heads the Ben-Gurion team of researchers, said that until now scientists focused solely on turbulence in laser beam broadening. The result was that scientists and engineers working on laser weapons developed optics that factored turbulence and ignored aerosol blur. Airborne lasers are being developed to destroy missiles from either a high-flying plane or a satellite at a distance of up to 1,600 kilometers. The Ben-Gurion University study was financed by the U.S. Air Force's ABL program. "While the U.S. Air Force is gathering atmospheric data over Korea and the Persian Gulf, we are interested in parallel information closer to home," Kopeika, who presented a paper at an aerospace symposium in Florida last month, said. "By the time the initial ABL aircraft will be operational, in about 2005, we expect to be a lot more knowledgeable about laser-weapon broadening in our region." Israel has been interested in sharing technology from the ABL program. The U.S. Army and Israel are cooperating in the development of the Tactical High Energy Laser and the two sides are considering development of a mobile airborne laser. Kopeika said his team of researchers would need years to develop a reliable model that predicts beam widening. Such a model would take into account surface weather and aerosol layers during various seasons as well as high-altitude winds and cloud layers. |
