Boeing Awarded High Energy Laser System Testbed Contract

Boeing has been
awarded a contract by the Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force
Base, N.M., for a mobile testbed to enable development of beam control and
fire control solutions for tactical high energy laser weapon systems.

The 48-month contract, valued at $23 million, will include ground and
airborne demonstrations of integrated sensing and beam control techniques
developed by Boeing Laser & Electro-Optical Systems to address targeting in
clutter and laser energy propagation and aim-point maintenance.

The Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments (MATRIX)
testbed, proposed by Boeing in response to the High Energy Laser Mobile Active
Tracking Testbed solicitation, will utilize a modular, open architecture to
allow integration of advanced sensing subsystems and techniques such as
polarimetry, multi-function active illuminators/laser radar, short-pulse
imaging, hyper/multispectral sensing and advanced tracking solutions that have
applicability to a variety of high energy laser systems.

“The MATRIX win is key to our tactical strategy since it allows us to stay
at the forefront of beam control and fire control technologies for tactical
high energy laser systems,” said Robert Van Allen, general manager of
Boeing-SVS, Inc., Albuquerque, N.M. “The MATRIX program will define beam
control/fire control for future tactical HEL systems by evaluating and
selecting the optimum sensing, algorithm and beam control approaches to best
aid the warfighter, and enable rapid integration of emerging tactical high
energy laser devices.”

The MATRIX program will be managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory,
Directed Energy Directorate, Surveillance Technologies Branch. Air Force,
Boeing and Pennsylvania State University affiliated personnel will perform the
work in New Mexico, Hawaii and Pennsylvania.

A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is one of
the world’s largest space and defense businesses. Headquartered in St. Louis,
Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $25 billion business. It provides
systems solutions to its global military, government and commercial customers.
It is a leading provider of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; the
world’s largest military aircraft manufacturer; the world’s largest satellite
manufacturer and a leading provider of space-based communications; the primary
systems integrator for U.S. missile defense; NASA’s largest contractor; and a
global leader in launch services.