I just picked this up form a Jane’s newsletter:
US announces successful tests of Airborne Laser
The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) successfully fired multiple long-duration blasts of the Northrop Grumman high-energy Airborne Laser (ABL) during ground tests, the company announced on 19 February. The tests for the Boeing 747-400F-based ballistic missile defence system lasted up to three seconds each and were concluded on 12 February
This is good progress, but I am still waiting for the real test: shooting down an ICBM in flight.
Shooting down an ICBM , God I wish it were true. Sadly the ABL will only be capable of hitting Scud type MRBM/IRBMs
Even so its quite an achievement and will be (If President O goes for a serious Missile Defense) an important part of the system and the only part (for now) that can hit missiles in the boost stage.
Er, actually, it’ll hit pretty much anything it gets pointed at.
Effectiveness? The potential target set is already longer than the single “Scud” (or Frog, or whatever medium range variant has been rebranded by the despot du jour, for that matter).
And who says you can only point it at rockets?
There’s an opportunity coming up between 4 April and 8 April for that Laser.
If you could stick it in a B2, it would be kind of amusing if Kim Jong Il were doing a photo-op and suddenly caught fire.