While the Boeing 747 was a no-go, the Pentagon is now envisioning drones with the capability to shoot down ballistic missiles. The airborne laser’s shortcomings led Defense Secretary Robert Gates to cancel the program in 2010. The Airborne Laser’s first flight was over Kansas in Jand, after a series of flight tests, the COIL laser was test-fired in September 2008.Īccording to the Arms Control Association, the major issue with the airborne laser was that it wasn’t powerful enough, had limited range, and made the 747 vulnerable to anti-aircraft missiles. The result was a modified Boeing 747 with tracking lasers and a chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL). In 1996, the Pentagon pushed for the development of an airborne laser weapon system. ![]() The concept behind the plane’s development was that the laser would be able to target a ballistic missile while it was in the boost phase shortly after lift-off. One idea to shoot down incoming missiles from the sky included strapping lasers to an airplane, dubbed the airborne laser. The SDI was eventually scaled back by Reagan’s successor, George H. retaliation to deter a Soviet attack, that we could intercept and destroy strategic ballistic missiles before they reached our own soil or that of our allies?” President Reagan said in his Maaddress to the nation announcing his SDI proposal.Ĭritics dubbed it “Star Wars,” after the science-fiction movie, because the plan included the development of laser systems in space that would detect and shoot down incoming ballistic missiles. “What if free people could live secure in the knowledge that their security did not rest upon the threat of instant U.S. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan sought to eliminate the threat of a large-scale nuclear attack with his proposal of the Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI. Strategic Defense Initiative - Reagan’s " Star Wars” proposal and the Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (AMB Treaty), preventing both countries from building up their missile defense systems. The advancement by the Soviets caused the U.S. The Soviets in 1961 successfully launched an anti-ballistic missile (ABM) that intercepted a ballistic missile. ![]() The first successful anti-ballistic missile
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