OMG the US Air Force can fire Lasers at targets!!!

[carlgo]

I believe the project of mounting a huge laser on a 747 to shoot down missiles has been either cancelled or severely cut back. Evidently using missiles to shoot down missiles is the best choice at this time.

Not everyone is aware that the US has actual anti-missile bases in Alaska and California right now, not a lot, but enough for North Korea. And the Navy has cruisers with that capability and I believe they are stationed between North Korea and Japan.

Israel considered lasers, as well as guns, to shoot down those unguided rockets that are fired at them from time to time. They settled on a missile system. That would indicate that lasers are not ready for prime time.

 

[Liquorpuki]

I believe the project of mounting a huge laser on a 747 to shoot down missiles has been either cancelled or severely cut back. Evidently using missiles to shoot down missiles is the best choice at this time.

Yeah, it was called the Airborne Laser project. Personally I thought it was a dumb idea. The laser could only travel the distance between LA and SF so in order to get an effective response time, it would've required 6 different laser-mounted planes to be flying a figure 8 in different parts of the world at all times of the day. The laser was supposed to hit the fuel tank of the missile and send the missile crashing back down on the country that launched it.

The pilots were so scared of the laser, they requested a metal barrier be placed between the cockpit and the laser aperture right below them. This would've done nothing anyway because if the laser blew up, it would've vaporized the entire plane.

 

[Sedulous]

I got talking to a sciencey bloke at university once who basically said what a commentor on that page said. All you need is a mirror or some highly polished reflective metal and it wont be damaged.

Actually, that won't work. From my understanding, the laser they built still is able to heat the body of a mirror missile such that it tears itself apart then breaks up.