Light Saber Slays Missile

You might have missed this, unless you saw the full-page ad Boeing took out in The Washington Post last week, but the prototype of the Airborne Laser, an anti-missile laser mounted in the nose of a 747, did something very impressive a few weeks ago.

It shot down a test missile in the boost phase. (See Video below)

It’s also historic, as Boeing brags in a press release, “This experiment marks the first time a laser weapon has engaged and destroyed an in-flight ballistic missile, and the first time that any system has accomplished it in the missile’s boost phase of flight. ALTB has the highest-energy laser ever fired from an aircraft, and is the most powerful mobile laser device in the world.”

Feb. 11, 2010 — An infrared image of the Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser Testbed (right) destroying a threat representative short-range ballistic missile

Funding for the ABL program has been cut back, and critics still think is “pie in the sky” But when building multi-layered missile defense, in which no one system can be counted on 100 percent to stop a (potentially nuclear-tipped) incoming missile, the ABL could be the first best defense against madmen and rogue states.

The flying “star warrior” has several advantages over land-based systems, in that it could be deployed to any place in the world where an unexpected threat emerges, as well as the usual hot spots, like North Korea, if tensions were to rise.

ICBMs are most vulnerable in their boost phase, when they are filled with fuel, and can be destroyed with a high-energy laser, if you can track it.

Sounds like science fiction, but February 11th it was shown to be science fact.

Is it worth the money?  How many layers of defense do we need?

Considering the old saying that one nuclear weapons could ruin your whole day, I subscribe to the redundancy theory of redundancy.

If North Korea, or Iran were to threaten the world with a nuclear armed missile, I would like to know — and I would like for THEM to know — we have a good chance of bringing it down over their territory.