Non-Subscriber Extract
Airborne Laser aircraft poised for first flight
- Article Tools
| 06 June 2002 |
Michael Sirak, JDW Staff Reporter, Washington DC
The US Air Force and Missile Defense Agency are poised to begin flying the first Airborne Laser (ABL) test aircraft.
Loitering at altitudes around 40,000ft, the ABL system is designed to destroy boosting ballistic missiles with a multi-megawatt laser beam that travels at the speed of light over great distances.
The high-energy beam, which will be about the diameter of a basketball, will heat the side of a missile until it fails structurally and tumbles to earth. Ideally, ABL programme officials say, the missile, along with its payload, will land on the territory of those who launched it.
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