USAF to develop airborne laser tech despite funding cut

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon plans to continue laser weapons technology and adapt it to several systems.

Pentagon officials said despite a cut in funding, the U.S. Air Force will continue the $1.2 billion airborne laser program, in which laser energy will seek to destroy enemy ballistic missiles and launchers. The target is Scud missiles and their derivatives developed by North Korea and Iran.

Officials said technology from the ABL will be used in other unnamed weapons systems. The ABL is being installed on a Boeing 747 cargo jet. The jet will also contain a missile-launch detection system and optic system that maintains accuracy despite atmospheric distortions.

Col. Ellen Pawlikowski, head of the ABL project, said the $92 million cut in the program, will postpone a planned 2003 shootdown test. But she told the Albuquerqe Tribune that she hopes the funding will be restored.

"The ABL -- which is a clean, effective and efficient weapon that is much cheaper than other weapons developed for the same purpose -- is the flagship for directed energy," the colonel said. I think it will open the door for other applications of directed energy in the military. But first we have to show we can do it, that it really does work."

In Washington, the Discovery Institute asserts that the United States has a force that is "less usable" today than at any other time since the late 1970s. The institute said a National Security Study Group scheduled to issue a report that will "fall well short of what's needed to build an adequate 21st century defense.

"For the past 10 years," said Discovery senior fellow Philip Gold, "a series of official studies have dodged the tough issues. The NSSG is a serious group doing some excellent work. But, inertia, inter-service rivalries, budget pressures, even the terms of the NSSG charter -- prevent it from taking its work to the logical conclusions."

The report urges the establishment of a separate space military service; a shift from naval aircraft carriers to submarines and small boats the restructuring of the army into three specialized forces and the creation of a homeland defense command.