Airborne Laser Zaps in-flight Missile

(CNET)  Score one for the Airborne Laser.

In a milestone for the ambitious directed-energy project, now dramatically downsized, the Pentagon's Airborne Laser prototype weapons system destroyed a ballistic missile that was in flight. The shootdown took place February 11 off the central coast of California.

"The Airborne Laser Testbed team has made history with this experiment," said Greg Hyslop, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems, in a statement released Friday. Boeing is the prime contractor for the Defense Department project.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency was equally enthusiastic about the results. "The revolutionary use of directed energy is very attractive for missile defense," the agency said in a statement, "with the potential to attack multiple targets at the speed of light, at a range of hundreds of kilometers, and at a low cost per intercept attempt compared to current technologies.

Unfortunately for proponents, the achievement is rather bittersweet.

Read the rest of this article at CNET News.com.
By Jon Skillings

[nomealaska]

This will come in handy when someone shoots a scud at us. Yeah, we won't have to worry ourselves about that problem. Whew!

[Scimajor]

"Stopped by a cloud, that would depend on the wave length"

Agreed however we're stepping again into the technical issues. Microwave and x-ray lasers, for example, have other issues which make them either impractical and/or not technically feasible.

[itonlyhappensounce]

Impractical?
Hopefully they can use it to fry bin ladens bu++ next time he comes out of his hole.

[Scimajor]

Frying people from orbit with a laser, if it's ever possible, is so far in the distant future that we can rest at ease. The technical challenges are too many to list and very difficult to overcome. A laser, no matter the power for example, is easily stopped by a cloud.

[berlinfoto-2009]

Stopped by a cloud, that would depend on the wave length. Laser come in many different colors, or a wide spectrum of wave lengths, some of which will easily pass through almost anything. In this article they are speaking of directed energy beams, and loosely speaking of lasers, this expands the wave length spectrum they are talking about considerable. So do not kid yourself, it is easily in the foreseeable future.

[prometheus9]

The future is now ! The DOD has a directed energy weapon that involves a circular (like a pipe) design particle beam with a high powered x-ray laser in the center. The particle beam around the laser beam helps to keep the laser beam on a straight path so it is not disfused by water vapor in the atmosphere (aka:clouds) This device grew out of the SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) programs that began in the 1980's. I will say the fact that the average citizen doesn't know about it doesn't surprise me.

[berlinfoto-2009]

This type of high powered laser will one day be mounted on earth orbiting satellites, and if future wars, will be used to shoot humans who have the wrong microchip under their skin.
Did you? or anyone you that you know? ever use a magnifying glass to fry ants as they came out of their ant bed? Just think one day people will do this to each other with earth orbiting satellites and high powered lasers.

[itonlyhappensounce]

Hopefully they can use it to fry bin ladens bu++ next time he comes out of his hole.