'Off we go into the wild blue yonder'

January 21, 2010

By Matthew E. Milliken

mmilliken@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

DURHAM -- More than 100 students and employees at the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics got a glimpse of the future Wednesday afternoon.

Compared to the recent movie "Avatar" -- or even 1977's "Star Wars" -- the few seconds of footage of a missile and a jet seemingly linked at long-distance by a bright laser beam seemed rather plain.

Of course, the director wasn't George Lucas but Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, the head of the nation's Missile Defense Agency. And the video clip he was showing portrayed not a special effect but a test conducted Jan. 10, one never before viewed by the public.

"The film hasn't been doctored -- it's real," O'Reilly said with a slight chuckle. "It's taken probably 30 years to achieve that."

O'Reilly was visiting Science and Math at the request of U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C. He said that the airborne laser tracking test will be followed in a few days by an attempt to use the device -- housed in a 747 jumbo jet -- to destroy a moving missile.

"Once we prove that we can do that, we believe that will be the future," O'Reilly told the students and faculty.

Energy weapons will likely comprise tomorrow's anti-missile systems due to the speed advantage that a laser -- which travels approximately 186,000 miles per second -- enjoys over any physical anti-missile device -- an interceptor closes with a missile target at a relative speed of about 10,000 miles per hour -- and the increasing miniaturization of lasers, according to the Army general.

The ability to track airborne objects is also crucial to missile defense. O'Reilly said his agency has a truck-based radar sensitive enough that from Durham it could track a softball over New York City and tell which way it was spinning. It also has the world's largest radar, which he said could be used in Durham to determine how many dimples were in a golf ball flying over San Francisco.

O'Reilly had the speech and manners of a genial physics professor, which he used to be at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. Since November 2008, he has presided over the Missile Defense Agency, a Department of Defense organization with a $7.83 billion budget and about 8,000 employees, of whom just 129 are military personnel.

The general's Durham visit was sandwiched between trips to N.C. A&T and N.C. State, where he was recruiting science and engineering students to work for the agency.

He was warmly received at Science and Math, where his presentation was open to students and workers. After the talk, during which O'Reilly asked two students to use slingshots to simulate a missile launch and missile interceptor, one teenager said his pacifist views might allow him to work for O'Reilly's agency because of its defensive nature. The general said that many of his employees shared the young man's ideals.

He repeatedly told the audience that his 26-year-old agency was built on determination and the very scientific concepts that are emphasized at the state-run school.

"None of this would be achievable if ... it wasn't for what you are learning here," O'Reilly said.

After the talk and a quick visit to the school's chemistry lab, the general called Science and Math impressive, inspiring and vital.

"This actually is more than just equations on a blackboard," he said. "And it really does give them a lot of power to have that knowledge."

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