More details have emerged on the Missile Defense Agency’s plan to fit a laser weapon on a high flying unmanned aerial vehicle in order to destroy ballistic missiles at the boost-phase.
By US Missile Defense Agency [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Director of the agency, Vice Adm. James Syring, said two airborne laser weapon concepts are being evaluated : a fiber combined laser (FCL) and a diode-pumped alkaline laser (DPAL).
Researchers must work out how to produce the weapon with a mass of 5 kg per kw of power. Syring says the answer might be known by 2019.
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