Corning Delivers ABL Mirror to Contraves

The US Air Force Airborne Laser (ABL) program took another step forward when Corning Inc. (Corning, NY) delivered a 62-in. blank for the system's primary mirror to optical subcontractor Contraves Brashear Systems (Pittsburgh, PA). Contraves will polish the mirror, which will be used to direct the high-energy laser beam of the system onto a target hundreds of kilometers away. This mirror is the first of two required for the ABL system.

The mirror will be mounted in a turret ball on the front of a modified 747-400F aircraft; the turret will allow the system to track and engage missiles at extended ranges, and the mirror will scan the beam of the laser housed in the aircraft. Corning used a water jet machining capability to reduce the weight of the mirror core core by more than 90%. The resultant light-weighted mirror weighs approximately 330 lb.

The current schedule calls for Team ABL to conduct a boost phase "shoot-down" of a theater ballistic missile in 2003. The group has already demonstrated the airborne laser (see Team ABL Produces "First Light" for Airborne Laser Program). An ABL Engineering Manufacturing and Development program could begin as early as 2004.