Laser Shoot Down Forces Congress to Challenge Obama Missile Defense Budget

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Riki Ellison, Chairman and Founder of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA), www.missiledefenseadvocacy.org released a statement today regarding the revolutionary airborne laser intercept test at Point Mugu, California last night. His comments and observations are the following. Ellison is one of the top lay experts in the field of missile defense in the world.

"Late last night, the Airborne Laser (ABL) now called the Airborne Laser Test Bed (ALTB), a Boeing-747 modified to carry a chemical based mega watt laser weapon system, successfully intercepted and destroyed two short-range ballistic missiles, one liquid fueled Scud like missile and one solid fueled U.S. target, off the Ventura coast of California at Point Mugu Air Station, the first one at 12:44 A.M. EST and the second one an hour later. The ABL used the speed of light lasers with multiple beams to target, track, intercept and destroy the ballistic missiles within seconds in the boost phase of the ballistic missiles flights."

"These intercepts by a laser on an air based platform are a historic technical and engineering revolution.  It is a technology game-changer that gives the United States a real proven capability that is air mobile, can target, track and intercept multiple targets in seconds, cost efficient and reusable. There are no other proven systems in the world today or in the near future that can shoot down boosting ballistic missiles. The United States leads the world on this revolutionary technology."

"President Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had cut the ABL program from the FY2010 Missile Defense Budget. The FY2011 budget request released on Monday, February 1st adds $99 million into an ABL legacy program called Directed Energy Research (DER). This program calls for continued development and testing of airborne laser technologies in experiments and test bed formats taking the system out of weapon development. The United States has invested around 5 billion tax dollars since the early 1990s on the ABL to make it a defensive weapon system. The ABL is similar in some ways to the development of the Joint Stars 707 aircraft that was thrust into the Iraq war with a test bed version and has become a tremendously useful military asset that is deployed in numbers today providing sophisticated surveillance and tracking on the ground from the air."

"The ABL is initially proven and should continue to be developed, tested and even deployed if necessary. The successful test on February 12th gives weight to the release last week of the Ballistic Missile Defense Review endorsement of Missile Defense development by the President and the Secretary of Defense who have recognized the quantitative and qualitative threat to our nation, allies and deployed forces from ballistic missiles. Furthermore, in lieu of Iran's recent and continued nuclear developments, the ability of our Military to use the ABL with U.S. air superiority to engage and destroy multiple Iranian missiles in seconds over Iran could be a critical asset if in the future a situation arose between Iran and the United States. This capability would have similar relevancy for the United States in the Korean peninsula in regards to North Korean's ballistic missile threats and nuclear capability in the region."

"The ABL should be given priority, further developed and be funded to be kept a fully viable defensive weapon system as a credible hedge against ballistic missile threats. The U.S. Congress will inevitably challenge the Department of Defense and the administration to fully fund and further develop this system to have an ability to deploy this system in crisis regions providing our armed forces and allies' necessary protection."

Ellison concluded his comments with: "Those responsible for this historic achievement and revolution that has taken close to a decade or more of research and engineering development from the Department of Defense and the civilian industrial base are to be congratulated and greatly appreciated for making our nation and world a safer place. Through their remarkable revolutionary breakthrough the ABL and the ALTB will lead to an eventual capability that may lead one day in the future to the elimination of the threat of ballistic missiles. "        

SOURCE Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance