Boeing 747 destroys ballistic missile with laser (update: photos!)
By Thomas Ricker 
posted February 12th 2010 6:19AM
posted February 12th 2010 6:19AM
No, this isn't a call to arms (yet), the US is simply evaluating its airborne laser weapon again. Now listen in because this latest test was a doozy. Last night at 8:44pm Cali time, the Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB) successfully "destroyed" a liquid-fueled ballistic missile from an airborne platform, according to the Missile Defense Agency. A first for the directed energy weapon that we've been following since 2006. The dirty work was achieve by a modified Boeing 747-400F airframe fitted with a Northrop Grumman higher-energy laser and Lockheed Martin beam and fire control system. After an at-sea launch, the ALTB used a low-energy laser to track the target. A second, low-energy laser was used to measure and compensate for atmospheric disturbances before the megawatt-class laser was fired, "heating the boosting ballistic missile to critical structural failure." The entire episode was over just two minutes after missile launch. Good work generals, but let's see you fit that laser to a shark if you really want to impress us.
Update: Infrared images of the ALTB destroying the short-range ballistic missile after the break.
Update: Infrared images of the ALTB destroying the short-range ballistic missile after the break.
Awe-some!
I for one welcome our laser shooting rocket busting Overlords.
Soon we'll be developing the Death Star.
Real Genius comes to mind. Now we just need the guidance system and we can laser out badguys from space/aircraft
@CraniusLupus
Regan would be proud.
Is there an app for this?
This is excellent
It's a chemical laser that costs millions per use, and the plane has only a few shots per take off.
It cannot hit a target on reentry. So you are talking about having very large planes flying around hostile territory 24 hours a day for this to be worth anything.
Yeah, this program was certainly worth the billions we spent on it, instead of having high speed rail, or fiber to every home, we have a worthless subsidy to the defense industry.
@stabbytheicepic "millions per use": so how much would the lives saved be worth? What should the limit be? And of course this cost is for the prototype; it will decrease if production models are made.
Re-entry is too late to hit the target; at that point, the MIRVs have separated and they will impact somewhere in our territory whether we disable the nuke or not.
Rest assured, we will have high-speed rail and fiber when it makes economic sense for that to happen. But for now, wouldn't you rather that millions of lives be saved, or that we no longer have to live under the threat of an ICBM attack?
@stabbytheicepic This program is basically free money to northrup.
@mozzis This will never be fired in live combat. If a country actually launches missiles this plane will be no where near the target, and not even in the air. I don't think you get just how unfeasible this system is.
@stabbytheicepic Putting the billions we spent on this program towards healthcare could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives by now too. If you want to go that route.
@mozzis The prototype has the final cost attached to it. The military pays what Northrup wants it to pay. If Northrup decides to build the units cheaper, that's a bonus for them.
@BigD145 Let's not forget it failed to take out a solid fueled rocket, you know the kinds launched from subs.
@stabbytheicepic 300 billion and counting for this system, and people go ballistic if Obama wants to spend 8 billion on infrastructure development.
@stabbytheicepic Healthcare is a myth.
@stabbytheicepic
its going to be flying around hostile territory 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year....
Woooo, Tower Defense FTW!
All I asked for were freakin sharks with lasers on their heads!!
You gotta admit, someone firing a laser to take down a missile is bad ass.
attach a lightsaber to that missile and learn it advanced fencing so it can deflect any laserbeams
Am I the only one who thinks "at-sea launch" of a Boeing 747-400 just sounds a wee bit far fetched? F16 - sure. A 747-400 requires a 2 mile runway, and as far as I know, the biggest aircraft carrier is about 1/10th of that size.
@hyslopc Er, I think they meant the ballistic missile was launched at sea, not the 747.
That's what they meant, but that's not what they wrote. "After an at-sea launch, the ALTB..." - ie, the ALTB was launched at sea (which it quite obviously was not).
Somewhere, Ronald Reagan smiles...
But, can it pop house full of popcorn?
But can it blend?
@zcolander Yep....with lasers!
So, just like on Real Genius? Could this also be used pop all the popcorn kernals piled in your professor's house that you don't like? Thus destroying his house in the most delicious way possible?
And the wars happens because most people applauding instead of protesting them....
niiicee!!
means light sabers soon!
A dream comes true, like this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GJOVPjhXMY
Aaah but the real question is...will it take down Chuck Norris?
The defense against anti-ballistic lasers isn't mirrors. It's plasma fields. Plasma fields can be generated with relatively little hardware - a re-entering ballistic missile warhead bus already has a plasma field around its ablative re-entry shield. Of course, the countermeasure to plasma fields is dumping more laser energy into the target through a smaller cross-sectional aperture, and adaptive optics are making that happen with increasing efficiency. It's going to be a viable technology - energy is cheap compared to anti ballistic missiles.