Acting Secretary of the Air Force F. Whitten Peters visited Wednesday (Jan.14) to learn more about the Airborne Laser, a top-priority Defense program to develop a fleet of laser-carrying aircraft that can destroy theater ballistic missiles. During his visit, Peters received presentations from the Airborne Laser Program Office and the Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate on the status of this new defensive system and the laser technologies that were developed here for that program.
The acting secretary also toured the Laboratory's Starfire Optical Range, the nation's premier facility for conducting research on technologies to correct for optical distortions in the atmosphere. This is essential in transmitting a laser beam through the atmosphere over long ranges, with the necessary strength to destroy a missile.
Peters is also under secretary of the Air Force and, prior to that, he was the principal deputy general counsel of the Department of Defense.
