GAO Doubts Boeing Laser’s Effectiveness

Boeing Co.’s program to develop an aircraft-mounted laser to destroy enemy missiles has almost doubled in cost, and its effectiveness is “highly uncertain,” the U.S. General Accounting Office said.

The value of the laser contract has grown to $2 billion from about $1 billion since its inception in 1996, with additional cost increases of as much as $943 million expected before the first full aircraft demonstration later this decade, the GAO said. The demonstration was originally expected to take place in March 2003.

The laser, mounted on a 747 jumbo jet, was considered a centerpiece of the Bush administration’s layered missile-defense system of air-, ground- and sea-based weapons. Expectations that the laser could be deployed on at least one aircraft this year for emergency use have been abandoned, with no new date set, the GAO said.