Pentagon's Airborne Laser Program Delays Test, Russia Reveals Their Own Missile Defense Program

This Department of Defense photo shows an infrared image of the Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser, right, destroying a short-range ballistic missile, left, last February. DOD / AFP / Getty Images

"Star Wars" Flying Laser -- 0-For-5 This Month -- Time Magazine

It was the late Ted Kennedy who galvanized his fellow Democrats at their 1980 convention by pledging "the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." Thirty years later, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency seems to have adopted those stirring words as its own. You may recall the Pentagon's Airborne Laser program, which has crammed a chemical laser into the belly of a modified 747 aircraft. Earlier this year, it fired a basketball-size beam traveling 670 million m.p.h. (1,078 km/h) — the speed of light — to destroy a fake enemy missile over the Pacific. "There's nothing like flaming wreckage" to prove such lasers are not science fiction, an engineer involved in the program said.

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More News On Missile Defense

Airborne Laser Test Postponed Again -- Global Security Newswire
US delays missile-zapping laser test for 4th time -- Reuters

Russia Develops Military Airborne Laser System -- Pravda
Russia Develops Military Airborne Laser System -- Military Technologies

Lockheed Martin taking aim at contract to develop advanced missile for Aegis system -- al.com
Lockheed Takes On Boeing For Missile-Defense Deal -- Wall Street Journal
Lockheed eyes long-range missile interceptor work -- FOX News

Missile Shield at $10 Billion Sets Up Boeing-Lockheed Showdown -- Bloomberg
Drones, laser beams, ships, START treaties: This is the new missile defense -- Stars And Stripes