# Presentation: 342504

## MORE THAN MISSILES

## Laser Systems on WSMR

- Mike Hart
- Radiation Safety Officer
- White Sands Missile Range
- 575-678-2757
- E-mail: mike.hart1@us.army.mil

## Land Mass & Topography

**White Sands owns 3,200 sq. miles****(5,149 sq. kilometers)**

**Lease agreements add 2,343 sq. miles (3,771 sq. kilometers)**

**Partner with Ft. Bliss add 1,562 sq. miles (2,514 sq. kilometers)**

**Notes:**
– Land Mass
The reasons south-central New Mexico was chosen for testing the first atomic bomb and testing all the systems you have just seen are the same reasons it is the right place for defense testing now and into the future.  White Sands Missile Range is the Department of Defense’s largest all-overland test range, perfectly configured for testing weapons systems and training America’s war fighters.
The missile range proper is approximately 100 miles north-to-south and 40 miles east-to-west.  This represents 17 percent of the land owned by the U.S. Army.  The missile range sits in what is know as the Tularosa Basin and encompasses White Sands National Monument.  The San Andres Mountains on the west and the Sacramentos on the east essentially create an enormous bowl in which to conduct testing.  This configuration enhances safety and security. Additionally, this configuration minimizes encroachment issues for the missile range. We have ongoing agreements with land owners to the north (40x40 miles) and west (20 x 80 miles) which allow us to call up the areas on a case-by-case when we are testing a system which requires a larger safety buffer zone, or we can launch or impact from very specific sites in the northern call-up.  Having the use of these lands increases the acreage available for testing by two-thirds.    Fort Bliss (1,745 square miles) is adjacent to our southern border.  Firings may be conducted from Fort Bliss, allowing for an all-overland flight corridor of more than 180 miles.  For some of the newer theater missile defense systems, we can launch the target missile from Fort Wingate near Gallup, New Mexico. 

Talking Points:	Training
			Kodiak

## High Energy LaserSystems Test Facility

**Tactical High Energy Laser**

**Notes:**
Managed by the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command, this area of the missile range has the Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser, the world's most powerful, continuous wave chemical laser, and the beam director capable of focusing the laser beam on static and mobile targets.  The atmospheric conditions at 600,000-feet can be simulated in the Large Vacuum Chamber.  The Tactical High Energy Laser and it's follow-on Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser are being developed at the site.  This joint U.S.-Israeli project has been used to shoot down not only rockets but also artillery rounds.

Directed energy, such as high-energy lasers and high-power microwaves, will be  White Sands is perfect for testing of this nature which requires an area with adequate safety buffers, backstops -  such as our mountains, specialized instrumentation to document test events as well as a variety of realistic targets.  White Sands has worked with the Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser, the Airborne Laser and the Tactical High Energy Laser and is the only location to date where real targets have been engaged in an open air, operational environment.

The Airborne Laser (ABL) will locate and track missiles in the boost phase of their flight, then accurately point and fire the high-energy laser, destroying enemy missiles near their launch areas. 

## Airborne Laser System

## Advanced Tactical Laser

## Other Facilities

**North Oscura Peak Test Site**

**QUESTIONS?**

## Slide 9