{"id":8996,"date":"2010-02-16T18:28:19","date_gmt":"2010-02-16T18:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/laser-bearing-jumbo-jet-shoots-down-its-first-missile-80beats\/"},"modified":"2010-02-16T18:28:19","modified_gmt":"2010-02-16T18:28:19","slug":"laser-bearing-jumbo-jet-shoots-down-its-first-missile-80beats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/astronomy\/laser-bearing-jumbo-jet-shoots-down-its-first-missile-80beats.php","title":{"rendered":"Laser-Bearing Jumbo Jet Shoots Down Its First Missile | 80beats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Success! The video below shows a test the military ran off the California coast last week, in which a modified Boeing 747 carrying a laser<\/a> used it to shoot down a test missile; it was the first time a laser weapon has destroyed a missile in its booster stage. DISCOVER covered the first flight tests<\/a> of this system back in 2008.<\/p>

The liquid-fueled rocket – thought to be a Scud-B, similar to those being developed by Iran and North Korea – was fired from a ship off the coast California on 11 February [New Scientist<\/em><\/a>]<\/span>. The plane locked in its tracking lasers, and then unleashed a chemical laser that burned a hole in the side of the missile to blow it up. The Missile Defense Agency ran three total tests, two of which were successful.<\/p>

<\/span>Despite these successes, the news isn’t good for the airborne laser program. Most scientists are pretty sceptical of missile defence. Once fast-moving warheads are in space, they are tough to intercept, and decoys can easily fool even the best systems [Nature<\/em><\/a>]<\/span>. This system’s approach—targeting the warhead while it’s still attached to the rocket—makes targeting easier, but it means that you must be able to strike within minutes of the missile’s launch.<\/p>

As a result, President Obama has pulled back<\/a> on airborne lasers. There are no other tests scheduled for this year, and the Missile Defense Agency, which manages the program, requested no money for it next year.<\/p>

Related Content:
80beats: Military Tests New Missile Defense System: Lasers Mounted on Jumbo Jets<\/a>
80beats: Could a Deep Sea Snail’s Shell Inspire Next-Gen Body Armor?<\/a>
80beats: Military Taser Has 200-Foot Range—And Safety Concerns<\/a>
80beats: Scientists Predict: The 2010s Will Be Freakin’ Awesome—With Lasers<\/a><\/p>

Video: Missile Defense Agency<\/em><\/p>

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Success! The video below shows a test the military ran off the California coast last week, in which a modified Boeing 747 carrying a laser used it to shoot down a test missile; it was the first time a laser … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}