I'm to lazy to look it up and you guys probably know more about this than I do... on the military channel, I saw a special where in every single test done with an ATL it was a 100% successful kill.

The question to me is, why isnt this technology on our aircrafts now?

The problem is they were shooting at a stationary target... On the ground.

Lets try shooting what its 'designed' to kill... A High speed, climbing ICBM in the atmosphere...

Define every single test? I saw a report in September saying they had a "kill", but I thought that was the first one. All the other ones were R&D tests to prove "hey we can actually aim this thing!"

chris the PEW PEW PEW was in reference to the ATL. that's supposed to be against hostile ground forces, no?

and yes, i know it was a megawatt laser, i was just having fun with words XD

This is why I'm not to fond of this idea... Either blow up the missile completely, or shoot them down once they hit the Apogee of their trajectory in space...

1. Don't believe what you see on the tube... Remember, most of the tests they did were against non moving targets on the ground... Not even close to what it's intended to kill...

Let's not forget the PATRIOT SAM system also has a '100%' kill ratio lol That couldn't be further from the truth...
2. The reason why is because we spent $1.1Bil just to develop the IDEA of this aircraft, and make sure it could even fly... Nothing was mentioned of if it would actually work or not.

"In 1996, the Department of Defense awarded Team ABL a $1.1bn Programme Definition and Risk Reduction (PDRR) contract for the development and test of an airborne laser weapon system."

Maybe thats what they were talking about, like i said it was brief special and i dont know much on the subject.

Which against a target sitting on the ground, that isnt moving, isn't very hard... A guy sitting in the backseat of a Bi-Plane with a hand grenade did the same thing in WW I

I know Phelan, no the ABL is designed to shoot down enemy ICBM's immediately after launch while the missile is still in Boost Phase where its vulnerable...

I know buddy =)

High power laser weapon from airborne laser platform defeats ground target in flight test - Military & Aerospace Electronics

^ 100% kill rate, yup. 1/1 stationary vehicles. programming a target acquisition system to that amount of detail is going to be a MONSTROUS task. atmospheric interference along with the sheer difference in velocities and trajectories, topography, etc...that's a lot of variables to account for. it's a great science fiction idea that has been implemented in reality, but it really isn't worth it.

wonder what the effect on the atmosphere would be if you tried to detonate a nuclear warhead while it's still waaaay up there, near its zenith?

hey, am i using the word zenith correctly O_o;

Thats what it's designed for... And thats not how they are testing it...

You'll have a high altitude detonation, less fallout to worryabout and so forth, but you run the risk of EMP.

Yes you did. Good job!

Thanks for finding that Phelan.

yay ^___^

and i understand the possibility (high one at that) of triggering a huge EMP burst, but i'm just thinking environmentally that's not gonna be fun. i don't know if the fallout would be necessarily less; it'll all start coming down as precipitation instead!

NOTE though, aren't the ATL and ABL different programs? the YAL-1A is a separate installation than the one I read for the ATL, which was installed on a C-130

heys guys

Hmm... just noticed that... that would be like the military... Build 2 different A/C to do the same thing...

Thats like the E-3 Sentry, and the E-8 JSTARS lol