Blog Editor Note: I have seen one report from the west coast that this test was monitored on 149.175 MHz. No other frequencies were reported.
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - A U.S. Air Force Boeing 747 aircraft based at Edwards AFB and equipped with an airborne laser device, successfully shot down a test missile in the sky off the central California coast Thursday night.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency said in a statement the test took place at 8:44 p.m. PST (11:44 p.m. EST) on Thursday /0444 GMT on Friday) at Point Mugu's Naval Air Warfare Center-Weapons Division Sea Range off Ventura in central California.
The high-energy laser, mounted on the nose of a modified Boeing 747-400F, was focused on the missile target during its boosting phase. The laser beam burned a hole in the side of the missile.
It was the first time that a laser weapon has engaged and destroyed an in-flight ballistic missile, and is the first time that any system has accomplished destroyed a missile as it was in its boosting phase.
"This was the first directed energy lethal intercept demonstration against a liquid-fuel boosting ballistic missile target from an airborne platform," the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said in a press release. "The revolutionary use of directed energy is very attractive for missile defense, with the potential to attack multiple targets at the speed of light, at a range of hundreds of kilometers (miles), and at a low cost per intercept attempt compared to current technologies."
Boeing is the prime contractor for the Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB) program. Boeing produces the aircraft, while Northrop Grumman supplies the higher-energy laser and Lockheed Martin is developing the beam and fire control systems.
