News
Flight Global (3/31, Trimble) reported that, "only months after rescuing the YAL-1 Airborne Laser (ABL) from potentially fatal budget cuts, Boeing" is pushing for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) "to speed up plans for acquiring a second aircraft" because of "fears that the MDA will follow up a planned shootdown test in August 2009 with a lengthy pause in development activity." Flight Global noted, "MDA officials have likened such a pause for ABL to the recent history of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense program, which was put on hiatus for several years after a series of shootdown tests in the late 1990s." Seeking to avoid such a delay, "Boeing is lobbying to begin developing the second aircraft -- dubbed Tail 2 -- immediately after the" 2009 test. The company is also "evaluating alternative platforms" for the laser, as the YAL-1 is built on a 747-400 platform, and that "production line closes next year." Flight Global noted, "As the ABL system has increased in weight from 81,600kg to 102,000kg, the 747-8Fs's redesigned wing and General Electric GEnx-2B turbofan engines make it an ideal new platform for the ABL."
