A $2.5 million telescope and dome
were installed Friday (Jan. 22) at a new Air Force Research Laboratory site
here. The telescope is part of a system for improving the Air Force's ability
to track missiles and use laser energy to destroy them.
This was a major enhancement to the 8,000-foot-high North Oscura Peak
site, which was developed by the laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate
at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.
The 1-meter (40-inch) telescope will be used to send and receive laser
light to and from the site and Salinas Peak, another White Sands site approximately
35 miles away. Sophisticated instrumentation will be used to measure the
extent to which the Earth's atmosphere distorts the light. Then, deformable
optics will be used. These are mirrors that can change their shape to compensate
for the distortions.
Built for the Directed Energy Directorate by Contraves Brashear Systems
in Pittsburgh, Pa., the telescope is on a mount that can move down 5 degrees
and revolve 360 degrees. It can be used with moving targets to simulate
more realistic wartime conditions.
By June, the Air Force will be able to fire non-destructive lasers at
a variety of missiles being launched at White Sands Missile Range. Although
three to four missile launches may take place each year, laboratory scientists
will be getting better data from a different "target" a
single-engine, propeller-driven Cessna Caravan airplane. This test aircraft
will carry a scoring board. Comprised of a range of detectors, the scoring
board will be able to gather greater amounts and more complete information
than will be available from the missiles.
Overall, 40 people are working on the project, most of whom reside in
offices at the directorate's Kirtland location, 140 miles away. Six to eight
people work at the site with four of them there full-time.
Three lasers will be typically used at the site: a 300-watt tracking
laser, a 50-200-watt adaptive optics beacon laser, and a 40-watt scoring
laser. The scoring laser will act as a surrogate for a high-energy weapons
laser.
During a test, North Oscura and Salinas Peaks will be in constant communications.
A laser will not be able to propagate unless several fail-safe measures
are in force at both locations. These are among the safety precautions in
place to ensure eye-safe operations.
Research conducted here is expected to also benefit the Airborne Laser
a large cargo aircraft equipped with a high-energy laser that can
destroy ballistic missiles hundreds of miles away. Although the Airborne
Laser is designed to operate at altitudes above 40,000 feet, data collected
here at the denser air of the 8,000 to 9,000-foot elevations
will be scaleable to the higher altitudes. Research at the site may be applied
to the first three production Airborne Laser aircraft or on tactical aircraft
as advanced weaponry.
North Oscura Peak was a former Army missile-tracking site. Designed to
withstand rocket strikes, the walls at the site are 4-foot-thick, with 1,200
tons of concrete embedded six feet in bedrock. The Directed Energy Directorate
refurbished the site in June 1997, spending approximately $700,000 to repair
the buildings, build a clean room, and install the lasers, advanced optics,
computers and test instrumentation. The money also included improvements
to the receiver station at Salinas Peak, where three portable shelters,
an electronics room and an optics room were installed.
