Oscura Range/Directed Energy weapons

originally I was just going to post this tid bit as a reply to the post about that Laser Equipped C-130H Ready For Testing thread... but this place needs to be added to the list of super top-secret places they would rather you not know about

There I made the comment that this was old news and my father-in-law worked on this project back in the 1980's anyway I got to talking to him about it and he let slip all the development nowadays into Directed Energy weapons is done at Oscura Peak, that's part of whitesands...When I asked, "So this is where they test the new laser"? he kind of chuckled and said, "They got way better stuff up there than a laser boy"!

Anyway there's not much more I can add but below I'll post the official bio on Oscura Peak...

Oscura Range
North Oscura Peak is an Air Force Research Laboratory site in the northern portion of the U.S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. The facility is designed to assemble and evaluate advanced sensor, tracking and atmospheric compensation systems. The goal is to improve the U.S. Air Force’s ability to track missiles and then efficiently transmit laser energy through the atmosphere to destroy those missiles.

The site is managed by the Laboratory’s Directed Energy Directorate, headquartered at Kirtland Air Force Base, about 140 miles to the north.

Atop the 8,000-foot-high North Oscura Peak, a 30-inch telescope is used to send and receive laser light to and from Salinas Peak, another site approximately 35 miles away. Sophisticated instrumentation is used to measure the extent that Earth’s atmosphere distorts the laser light. Then, deformable optics are used: mirrors that can change their shape to compensate for the distortions.

The research gained from these tests will benefit any follow-on efforts to the Airborne Laser – a large cargo aircraft, equipped with a high-energy laser that can destroy theater ballistic missiles hundreds of miles away. In contrast to the Airborne Laser, which is designed to operate at altitudes around 40,000 feet, these tests are taking place on peaks that are between 8,000 and 9,000 feet high. The denser air at these lower test elevations makes it possible to take the collected data and scale it to the higher altitudes and longer ranges envisioned for the Airborne Laser. Research at this site may be applied on the first three Airborne Laser production aircraft or as advanced weaponry on tactical aircraft.

Source

[edit on 17-12-2007 by DaddyBare]

I don't know where the C130 laser is posted on ATS, but I read the press release. The C130 project is not the same as the Airborne Laser.

If you look at
N34 54 0.33 W117 52 32.78
on Google Earth, you will see the nose of the ABL test platform sticking out the side of a building at Edwards AFB. The large white round tank to the right is pumped out to create an atmosphere similar to where the ABL will operate.

The C130 project is probably for low altitude use.

Incidentally, there is an old environmental report (not sure if it is on the net) that shows the locations of the test targets used at Edwards AFB. They are on "south base. " Probably most on the site know this but just in case, "north base" runs area 51. That is where the Janet Beech planes land.

Sorry to drag this off topic, gariac, but North Base doesn't run Area 51. It is the site of a special branch of the Electronic Warfare Directorate that also acts as a customer interface for Det 3 AFFTC ("Area 51"). You are correct that the Janet Beech planes land there to allow personnel to commute to and from Groom Lake and TTR. Det 3 has its own on-site commander who reports directly to the AFFTC commander.

To at least keep this message somewhat on-topic, I'll just add that the ABL systems integration airframe ("Iron Bird") that used to stick out of the building at South Base has been dismantled and removed.