SOVIET AIRBORNE LASER LABORATORY DESTROYED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100010018-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 6, 2012
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: July 3, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/06: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100010018-1
DEFENSE DAILY
3 July 1986
SOVIET-AI BORNE LASER LABORATORY DESTROYED
The Soviet Union's airborne high energy laser test vehicle program has . suf ere a
catastrophic failure resulting in the loss of the program's only aircraft laboratory.-
The-Soviet laboratory, a converted 11-76 transport, apparently suffered a fire that
totally destroyed the aircraft on the ground at the 'air base at Shchelkovo two weeks ago.
Reconnaissance satellite photographs had recorded the high energy laser test vehicle at the
Shchelkovo base only hours before the fire. Subsequent photography showed the destruction
of the aircraft,
The 11-76 aircraft equipped by the Soviets as their airborne high energy laser research
vehicle had been in use for several years and its mission is believed to have been similar to
the U.S. Air Force ALL (Airborne Laser Laboratory), a highly instrumented NKC-135 aircraft
investigating the integration and operation of the high energy laser from the airborne laboratory
to an airborne target.
The Air Force completed the Initial phases of the ALL research program on July
25, 1983, and the aircraft Is now In a flight readiness status at Kirtland AFB, N.M. for "potential
future missions," Air Force officials said yesterday.
STAT
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/06: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100010018-1