Feds not interested in Boeing's airborne laser

The successful interception of missiles with Boeing Co.'s airborne laser in tests a week ago doesn't warrant restoring the $8.2 billion program that Defense Secretary Robert Gates curtailed last year, a Pentagon spokesman said.

The Feb. 11 test, in which the laser carried aboard a Boeing 747 intercepted short-range missiles off the California coast, prompted missile defense advocates and at least one lawmaker, U.S. Representative Todd Tiahrt, a Kansas Republican, to request Gates expand the 16-year-old program. The defense chief had slashed it to a single test aircraft from seven 747- based planes.

Designed to stop missiles while they are in the so-called boost phase, or lifting off, the directed-energy device would complement existing ground- and sea-based defenses.

Gates, who doesn't oppose the laser technology, curtailed the program because it requires the military to "hover a 747 in enemy territory to shoot down a missile" and completion of the planes used carries "an extraordinary cost," Geoff Morrell, the spokesman, told reporters today.

Chicago-based Boeing builds the aircraft at its facility in Wichita, Kansas, part of the district that Tiahrt represents. Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. are the laser and fire-control subcontractors. Boeing didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment today.

"We still very much want to pursue development of this promising technology, and we'll figure out down the road what the appropriate and cost-effective platform is," Morrell said.

Using directed energy "is very attractive for missile defense, with the potential to attack multiple targets at the speed of light" and at a low cost per intercept attempt compared with current methods, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said in a statement announcing the test.

Defense BudgetThe Pentagon didn't allocate any money specifically for the program in its 2011 budget proposal. The agency requested $400 million in the 2009 budget year and about $186 million this year.Gates noted in a July 16 speech that "after more than a decade of research and development" the program had not yet demonstrated its military value. The planes would cost $1.5 billion each to build and "tens of millions of dollars" annually to maintain, he said then."The program and operating concept were fatally flawed," Gates said.