Turret Flight Test For Laser Weapons
The ABC turret system is designed to allow high-energy lasers to engage enemy aircraft and missiles.
Lockheed Martin in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the University of Notre Dame, has demonstrated the airworthiness of a new beam control turret being developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and AFRL to give 360-degree coverage for high-energy laser weapons operating on military aircraft. A research aircraft equipped with the Aero-adaptive Aero-optic Beam Control (ABC) turret conducted eight flights in Michigan.
¡°These initial flight tests validate the performance of our ABC turret design, which is an enabler for integrating high energy lasers on military aircraft,¡± said Doug Graham, vice president of advanced programs, Strategic and Missile Defense Systems, Lockheed Martin Space Systems.
The ABC turret system is designed to allow high-energy lasers to engage enemy aircraft and missiles above, below and behind the aircraft. Lockheed Martin¡¯s flow control and optical compensation technologies counteract the effects of turbulence caused by the protrusion of a turret from an aircraft¡¯s fuselage.
All turret components met U.S. Air Force and Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness requirements.
Subsequent flight tests over the next year will demonstrate the turret in increasingly complex operations.
Sources: Lockheed Martin
