UPDATE 2-US airborne laser fails 2nd shootdown test in row

[unhappycamper]

UPDATE 2-US airborne laser fails 2nd shootdown test in row
By Jim Wolf
Thu Oct 21, 2010 2:08pm EDT

WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - A converted Boeing Co (BA.N) 747 equipped with a powerful laser failed to shoot down a mock enemy ballistic missile, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said on Thursday, the system's second botched flight test in a row.

~snip~

Previously, the flying raygun had been under development as a potential part of a layered U.S. ballistic missile shield against weapons that could be fired by countries such as Iran and North Korea. Pentagon planners initially envisaged using the aircraft to shoot down ballistic missiles near their launch pads.

"The reality is that you would need a laser something like 20 to 30 times more powerful than the chemical laser in the plane right now to be able to get any (safe) distance from the launch site to fire," Gates told the House of Representatives Appropriations Defense subcommittee last year after scaling it back.

The technology is now being tested for other potential missile-defense applications.

The United States has been spending about $10 billion a year to build a bulwark against missiles that could be tipped with chemical, biological or nuclear warheads.



unhappycamper comment: Think about it. Major cities in the United States have to cut their budgets by hundreds of millions of dollars and the feds piss away $10 billion dollars a year on this stuff.

[leveymg]

1. If it can't shoot down full-size missiles, maybe it will be useful against this dreaded threat:

Horrifying devastation from Palestinian "missile attack".