I just received this, and NO source was cited, so I can't verify it at
all, but it is interesting -- SW
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The industry Airborne Laser (ABL) team has installed all six Chemical
Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) modules aboard the prototype aircraft
providing its full megawatt-class power laser beam. Northrop Grumman
announced the integration of COIL into the Boeing 747-400F platform is
more than 70 percent complete. The $1.1-billion ABL project aims to
detect, track, target, and destroy ballistic missiles during their
boost-phase. Its revolutionary use of directed energy makes it unique
among the United States' airborne weapon systems, with a potential to
attack at the speed of light at a range of hundreds of kilometers.


The powerful, turret-mounted laser is designed to disable enemy ballistic
missiles during their boost phase by heating a basket-ball sized portion
of the projectile's skin until it buckles. According to Air Force General
Trey Obering III, head of the Missile Defense Agency program, the six
modules, each the size of "a Mini Cooper automobile," and now are ready
"for fully integrated ground testing this summer." This is major step
toward the planned shoot down of a boosting missile in 2009. Because of
it's speed-of-light ability to kill, the ABL is the only system under
testing that is able to detect and engage enemy missiles in their most
vulnerable boost phases.


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