More than a year after we started complaining in earnest about antisatellite research scheduled at the Air Force’s Starfire Optical Range (see ACW, Starfire Optical Range, 8 April 2005), Bill Broad at the New York Times discovers the “largely secret project, parts of which have been made public through Air Force budget documents submitted to Congress in February …”
The tone of article is alarmist, but I am glad for the coverage.
One more thing, Broad mentions that “Unclassified pictures of Starfire in action show a pencil-thin laser beam shooting up from its hilltop observatory into the night sky.”
Above.
Update: I’ve got a longer post on the subject over at DefenseTech.org.
Um. I assume it’s ok to point out that that picture is very obviously digitally manipulated? Which may be why the NYT did not run it.
For those interested in where Starfire is located, see:
http://tinyurl.com/lku7s
a better link for the NY Times article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/washington/03laser.html?ex=1304308800&en=0e5d7ccfe334c2ee&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
There are some good pictures of the “pencil-thin laser” at the Directed Energy Directorate’s image gallery:http://www.de.afrl.af.mil/Gallery/index.aspx (my favorites: http://www.de.afrl.af.mil/Gallery/Images/Full/Domes.jpg and http://www.de.afrl.af.mil/Gallery/Images/Full/SOR-3beam-300a.jpg).