Defunct Boeing Laser Project “Mysteriously Reappears”

By Gordon Duff and New Eastern Outlook, Moscow

 
(Editor’s note:  Press TV censors blocked this report from Iran’s media, another “Banned by Press TV”)
 
Reports, including photographic evidence reveal that Israel is using an energy weapon to attack targets in Gaza.  The destructive beam, thought to be a high energy laser, is emitted from a plane identified as a Boeing KC707 “Re’em,” originally configured for Electronic Warfare.

(Hollywood, as is so often the case, gets it right”)

[youtube Z-DO3W-ICYk]

Those observing the attacks cite a beam from a 4 engine jet hitting a target which immediately turns “white hot.”  After these attacks, the target area is then hit with either bombs or artillery to destroy evidence of the use of an American designed and built energy weapon illegally given to Israel.

[youtube yZPKJ9TEzDA&list=PL0tLuIEYf-cTK3r0FpqFlwuuwGdSKNIVr]

BACKGROUND
The weapon used is identified as part of the YAL 1 system, a COIL laser (chemical, oxygen/iodine laser), originally intended as an aircraft mounted system to shoot down ICBMs.  Boeing approached the Department of Defense in 2002 and by 2004 had mounted its first system on a 747/400 previously flown by Air India.

Boeing had convinced Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that this system, mounted on as many as 7 aircraft, could fly 24 hours a day around Iran and defend “the free world” against nuclear tipped ICBMs that Rumsfeld believed Iran was planning to use.  Please note that it was Rumsfeld that told television audiences that Afghanistan was “peppered” with underground cities serviced by rail links that supported division sized Al Qaeda units that, after ten years, no one was able to locate.

Boeing tested the system in 2007.  The Department of Defense claimed the system could shoot down low earth orbit satellites and that in tests conducted in 2010, destroyed multiple test missiles.  There is no reliable confirmation of this other than a press release from then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
CANCELLATION AND MYTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE
The Center for Strategic Studies, in an interview with then Defense Secretary Gates published the following:

“I don’t know anybody at the Department of Defense who thinks that this program should, or would, ever be operationally deployed. The reality is that you would need a laser something like 20 to 30 times more powerful than the chemical laser in the plane right now to be able to get any distance from the launch site to fire.”
So, right now the ABL would have to orbit inside the borders of Iran in order to be able to try and use its laser to shoot down that missile in the boost phase. And if you were to operationalize this you would be looking at 10 to 20 747s, at a billion and a half dollars apiece, and $100 million a year to operate. And there’s nobody in uniform that I know who believes that this is a workable concept.”

After $5 billion was spent, the functioning prototype only capable of being fired directly at nearby targets, a system very capable of acquisition and destruction of ground targets with no air defense protection only, was said to have been flown to a scrap yard.
The plane itself is still there, at Davis Monthan Air Force Base, with other failed dreams and nightmares.
However, the weapons system disappeared, only to reappear in Israel as a “missile defense” project, an adjunct to the “Iron Dome” system.  Israel’s Rafael Defense had been trying to develop laser weapons on its own to intercept rockets being fired from Gaza.  It was never able to neither deploy a laser powerful enough nor develop a radar system able to be effective.
TREASON AND DECEPTION
“Friends of Israel,” within the US defense community were convinced by Israel that the system could be finished and deployed to protect Israel against a purported “missile onslaught” from Tehran.
In truth, there was no such intention.  Instead, as in the film “Real Genius,” the laser system was always intended to be deployed against ground targets, for terrorism and assassinations.  The “delivery system,” a Boeing airliner configured for AWAC, electronic warfare or refueling, could easily be modified to “clone” commercial air traffic and attack targets thousands of miles away or as close as Gaza, Lebanon, Syria or Iraq with total impunity.
Israel’s Raphael announces acquisition of a high energy laser system and credits an unnamed relationship with Boeing from the video below taken from the Raphael press release:

“At the Singapore Airshow we are introducing our Iron Dome and MIC4AD air-defense integration system and a new system called ‘Iron Beam’, comprising a new C-RAM defense capability employing directed energy weapon.” Joseph Horowitz, Director of Marketing and Business Development at RAFAEL’s Air Superiority Systems Division told Defense-Update. “The directed energy component known as ‘Iron Beam’ employs a solid–state laser interceptor designed to engage targets at very short range, below the levels where we currently employ the Iron Dome.” Horowitz explained, adding “As a weapon system, Iron Beam is designed to have minimal collateral damage, minimal environmental impact and no risk to friendly air traffic around the attacked target.”

[youtube Y-Ok6DICyzk#t=83]

OUTSIDE IMAGINATION
McLeod and Rogers, in The Law of War, examine the history of prohibition of incendiary weapons.  Israel’s use of white phosphorous, intended as a “smoke market” as a corrosive anti-personnel weapon against civilian populations in Lebanon and Gaza skirts initial language, as cited below, in the St. Petersburg Declaration of 1868, but falls well short of evading later prohibition on the use of chemical agents.
“The first treaty to deal with weapons was the St Petersburg Declaration of 1868. Here states were concerned about the development of explosive or incendiary bullets for use against the wagon trains of enemy forces. It was felt that these bullets might be used against enemy personnel15 and cause unnecessary injury.
The Contracting Parties agreed ‘mutually to renounce, in case of war among themselves, the employment by their military or naval troops of any projectile of a weight below 400 grammes, which is either explosive or charged with fulminating or inflammable substances’.
The declaration does not seem to have affected the practice of states in using tracer for range finding, even mixed with normal ammunition, nor the use of small explosive projectiles for anti-aircraft and anti-material uses.  It did not prevent states from using four pound, thermite-based incendiary bombs during the Second World War. These, obviously, were more than 400 grammes in weight. Furthermore it could be argued that they were not ‘projectiles’, a term that certainly would not include illuminating flares or smoke canisters.”
The use of energy weapons for assassinations and terrorism had, prior to only a few short days ago, been subject of speculative fiction only.  No one had imagined that a failed American weapons system would be pirated for deployment in acts of terrorism by a rogue state.
A greater question arises, if this “failed system” costing many billions has been shipped off “in the dark of night” without public knowledge or official authorization for use in a criminal manner, what other systems may have been similarly pirated?
There is conclusive evidence that W54/Davy Crocket nuclear weapons made their way to Israel after 1991 after an
accident at Dimona is reputed to have made that facility useless for weapons development.
Similarly, when the Ukraine retired its “fleet” of SS21 tactical nuclear missiles, Israel took possession of the warheads, servicing their deuterium booster gas all these years to keep them ready for deployment.  Intercepted communications between the Kiev junta and Israel now indicate that Israel is ready to “repatriate” some of these nuclear weapons to the Ukraine for use against pro-Russian separatists.  Ukrainian leaders have spoken of the intent to deploy and use these nuclear weapons publicly on several recent occasions.  From USA Today:
“KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine may have to arm itself with nuclear weapons if the United States and other world powers refuse to enforce a security pact that obligates them to reverse the Moscow-backed takeover of Crimea, a member of the Ukraine parliament told USA TODAY.
‘We gave up nuclear weapons because of this agreement,’ said Rizanenko, a member of the Udar Party headed by Vitali Klitschko, a candidate for president. ‘Now there’s a strong sentiment in Ukraine that we made a big mistake.’”
THE PATTERN IS CLEAR
With today’s bombing of a UN refugee facility in Gaza, with the use of chemical and now energy weapons, with Israel’s planned sale of nuclear warheads to Ukraine, there is little more that could be done to establish Israel, not only as a rogue state, but as a “clear and present danger” to not only regional but global security as well.
As Jim W. Dean of VT recently stated, “Their fingerprints are at every crime scene.”
—–
DEVELOPMENT BACKGROUND

• The Airborne Laser – A Revolution in Military Affairs  Gerald W Wirsig; Diane Fischer (Faculty Advisor)  Air Command and Staff College 1997 – The method of employment and the portion of the theater missile defense mission to be performed by the ABL are yet to be determined.The Airborne Laser Program HomepageThe ABL program is managed by the Air Force Phillips Laboratory.
  • Vol. 1, Number 3, July 1995 Airborne Laser Program Newsletter
  • Vol. 2, Number 4, August 1996 Airborne Laser Program Newsletter
  • Vol. 3, Number 1, February 1997 Airborne Laser Program Newsletter
  • Vol. 3, Number 3, June 1997 Airborne Laser Program Newsletter

  Airborne Laser ContractAn archive of documents relating to the ABL contract and source selection process. Most of these are excruciatingly boring contract legalese, but this represents the major source of primary program information.
  Airborne Laser (ABL) for Theater Missile DefenseThe Airborne Laser (ABL) program is developing design concepts to minimize engineering risks for an airborne, high-energy laser weapon demonstrator capable of acquiring, tracking, and killing theater ballistic missiles in boost phase. The Airborne Laser Experiment (ABLEX) was a series of experiments propagating a laser beam between two aircraft. Two defense industry teams, Boeing and Rockwell International, developed design concepts for the ABL which include a nose-mounted turret, a chemical oxygen-iodine laser, and a 747 aircraft. At the end of the concept design phase, the Boeing contractor team was selected to build a demonstrator that will be flight tested.
  Airborne Laser (ABL)The Airborne Laser (ABL) Demonstrator Program is an Air Force Advanced Technology Demonstration program to develop and then demonstrate the necessary technologies to acquire, track, and destroy theater ballistic missiles during boost phase.
  Phillips Laboratory Scoping Meeting For Airborne Laser 28 March 1995 –  A meeting to discuss environmental concerns associated with the Phillips Laboratory’s Airborne Laser Program was held April 4, 1995 to solicit public input on any environmental concerns.
  BOEING, LOCKHEED MARTIN, TRW WIN AIRBORNE LASER CONTRACTNovember 12, 1996 — The U. S. Air Force awarded a team of Boeing, TRW and Lockheed Martin a $1.1 billion contract to develop and flight test a laser weapon system to defend against theater ballistic missiles.
  Airborne Laser @ BoeingAs part of a US Air Force effort to address the feasibility of an airborne laser system for defense against those types of missiles, a team comprised of Boeing, TRW and Lockheed Martin has been exploring the concept of an accurate, airborne, high-energy laser.
  Airborne Laser – Rockwell Team There were initially two teams competing for the program: the Rockwell / Hughes / Raytheon E-Systems / SVS R&D / Lockheed Martin / Parsons / SAIC team, and the Boeing / Lockheed / TRW team. The Airborne Laser contract was awarded on November 12, 1996.
  Laser Beam Propagation and Control SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2120. Meeting Date: 01/23 – 01/29/94 – Abstracts for the papers in this volume are located in this file immediately following the contents list below. All papers are published by SPIE — The International Society for Optical Engineering. Includes abstracts of reports on the Airborne laser experiment (ABLEX) series of experiments.
  Airborne Laser Experiment to study performance limits of turbulence compensation systemsfrom OE Reports December 1995 issue An interview Russell Butts, Air Force Phillips Laboratory – ABLEX is an acronym for Airborne Laser Experiment, which was an experiment which propagated a laser beam from one aircraft to another aircraft. At the receiver aircraft, an 80-cm telescope and optical system imaged the intensity pattern incident across the aperture onto a focal plane where the intensity patterns were recorded.
  FTC NEGOTIATES SETTLEMENT WITH HUGHES OVER ITEK ACQUISITION;FEBRUARY 9, 1996 – The sale of assets between one of the partners in each of the two teams competing for a $700 million Air Force contract could raise prices or reduce investments in technology and quality for a critical component of an Air Force anti-missile program, the Federal Trade Commission has alleged. Today, the FTC announced it has reached a settlement of these allegations with General Motors and its subsidiaries, Hughes Electronics and Hughes Danbury Optical Systems. The FTC said the settlement will ensure continued competition for “deformable mirrors,” part of the adaptive optics system that allow an anti-missile system to correct for distortions in the atmosphere. The affected system is the Air Force’s Airborne Laser (ABL) program.

• MIT, USAF, And Team ABL Demonstrate Improved Airborne Laser Active Tracking Approach
• Team ABL Proposes Airborne Laser Weapon System – July 9, 1996
• TRW Approved to Begin Manufacturing First Laser Hardware for Airborne       Laser System March 10, 1997
• Team ABL Successfully Completes A Major Program Milestone, March 26, 1997
• Set Lasers on Stun
• New Solid-State Laser Developed for Airborne Laser Program, Lockheed Martin Press Release, 30 March 2001 — Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company today announced that its subcontractor, Raytheon Electronic Systems, has achieved a crucial milestone in the development of the Beam Control/Fire Control system for the U.S. Air Force’s Airborne Laser (ABL) program. The Beam Control/Fire Control system will aim and fire a high-energy laser at a target missile in its boost phase.

Gordon Duff

Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.

Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.

Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.

• Gordon’s Archives:  2008-2015
• Gordon’s Archives:  2016-2022