Defense missile laser sits idle at White Sands
By Chris Roberts / El Paso Times 4 September 2006
www.elpasotimes.com/military/ci_4284670

["And lasers do have limitations, he said. Smoke, water vapor, dust and sand
can degrade their effectiveness. To provide a relatively seamless defensive
shield, they would have to paired with other defensive systems, Lennox
said.]

A missile defense system that consistently knocked out Katyushas -- the
World War II-era missiles that have killed scores of residents in northern
Israel in recent months -- sits in mothballs at White Sands Missile Range.
Despite the fact that the system has the potential to save lives, there is
no official plan to resurrect it.

A smaller version is under development by Northrop Grumman, but it would be
up to the U.S. government to decide whether to share that technology, said
Bob Bishop, a company spokesman.

"We estimate we could deliver a Skyguard system in about 18 months," Bishop
said. "We estimate that, in the United States only, the first Skyguard could
cost as much as $150 million."

The Tactical High Energy Laser, or THEL, program started in 1995 as a
cooperative effort between the United States and Israel. Israel was looking
for a defense against short-range air-

defense threats, including Katyushas, a goal shared by the U.S. military. By
2002, the system had successfully shot down 25 of the missiles, singly and
in salvos.

The United States spent more than $200 million with an additional $100
million-plus laid out by Israel and Northrup Grumman, Army officials said.
Politics, higher priority demands for scarce funding, and some system
limitations intervened to halt the program, and the lasers now sit in "cold
storage" at White Sands.

"It would require several months to place the THEL Testbed into a fully
operational mode," said Scott McPheeters, assistant program manager for
Directed Energy Applications, which is under the Army's Cruise Missile
Defense Systems Project Office. "The THEL Testbed and related equipment
would require a major overhaul and the full incorporation of several ...
design improvements before it could be made reliable and sustainable in a
combat environment."

The system is large, heavy and created too much chemical waste. The
advantage of the chemical laser, however, is that it creates the high energy
needed to eat through a metal case and destroy missiles, artillery rounds
and mortars. The THEL proved capable of consistently eliminating all of
those threats.

In 2000, Israeli and U.S. officials decided to pursue a smaller and lighter
more battlefield-friendly version of the laser. In 2004, the program was
changed again, this time to make it even more mobile and to tailor it
specifically for the threats that were encountered by U.S. forces in Iraq
and Afghanistan, and the Israeli population near the Gaza border.

However, as the political landscape changed with the United States' global
war on terror and the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, the project gradually
lost favor. Israel diverted money to other programs and the United States
needed the money to support soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, McPheeters
said.

"It was short-stopped a couple of years ago, like every other program, not
because it was bad but because of money and resources," said Maj. Gen.
Robert Lennox, Fort Bliss commander and commandant of the Army Air Defense
Artillery Center and School, which had a hand in the "mobile" version.

Lennox said the Army is now pursuing smaller, solid-state lasers that are
electrically powered.

So far, solid-state lasers lack the power of chemical lasers, which means
they aren't as effective for targets such as artillery shells.

However, one part of the THEL system has seen action the radar, which is now
used in Israel's early warning system, McPheeters said.

Many of the warnings sounded in Israel recently were for Katyushas. The
Katyusha created by the Soviet Union during World War II is unguided but it
can be easily and cheaply manufactured. Hezbollah, in the recent conflict
with Israel, reportedly launched nearly 4,000 of the missiles, covering
about 15 percent of Israel's territory. Israel mounted attacks on sites
across most of Lebanon.

Although Lennox declined to speculate on whether the THEL or one of its
variants would have saved lives in Israel, he said it would have given
Israel more options.

"In a theoretical sense ... if (the enemy has) a provocative missile strike
against you and you can intercept it, then you don't have to provoke a war
between you and that terrorist group, which may be what that terrorist group
is expecting," Lennox said. "Really the only thing (Israelis) had in their
capability was to warn their population and to strike back."

Northrop Grumman's Skyguard could provide some of that protection, according
to the company, which was a prime THEL contractor at White Sands. Compared
with the Army's version, Skyguard is one-fourth the size, more efficient and
more powerful, Bishops said, and although the system is transportable, it is
meant to operate from a fixed site.

Skyguard has a range of about six miles, he said, and could provide a
protective shield for deployed forces, military installations, civilian
populations and industrial areas. They also could be deployed at airports to
protect incoming and outgoing aircraft, he added.

Lennox said he hasn't heard any official word on resurrecting the Army's
program.

And lasers do have limitations, he said. Smoke, water vapor, dust and sand
can degrade their effectiveness. To provide a relatively seamless defensive
shield, they would have to paired with other defensive systems, Lennox said.

And with their Katyushas, Hezbollah has demonstrated a tactic that can be
easily and cheaply imitated, Lennox said.

"I think you'll see more rockets being fired in the future against all sorts
of enemies by all sorts of people," Lennox said. "So you can understand that
maybe your calculus for what's expensive has changed as a result of what's
taken place in the Middle East. Maybe it's not so expensive anymore when you
consider the terror threat that these (Katyushas) are to people in the
civilian population."