A new chapter in missile defense?

Shortly after the end of the Second World War, U.S. defense officers began gathering information on Britain's defenses against the V-2. One idea the British had was to use barrage antiaircraft artillery fire against V-2s. The chief of Britain's Anti-Aircraft Command at the time, General Sir Frederick Pile, estimated it would have taken approximately 12,000 antiaircraft rounds to knock down a single V-2. The Allies overran the V-2 sites idea before the idea could be tested in practice. Another footnote to history: an army advisory group looking into the question of future defenses against missiles offered up the (then novel) idea of deploying an "energy beam."