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February 11 2010. A modified Boeing 747-400F with more than 7 tons of optics up front and a megawatt-class laser in back destroyed a liquid-fueled ballistic missile target while both were in flight. The Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser TestBed reportedly carries a megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser that's coupled with precise pointing and atmospheric correction equipment. And it has now proven capable of knocking a ballistic missile out of the sky.

The system is the result of a cooperative effort led by Boeing, in partnership with Northrop Grumman (which supplies the laser) and Lockheed Martin (which is developing the fire control system). The aim is to deter enemy missile attacks by disabling the attacking missiles while they are in the boost phase. That means hitting a target capable of 4,000 miles per hour with a beam of light traveling somewhere close to 670 million miles per hour.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency hopes similar devices will one day be able to track and attack multiple targets, at a range of hundreds of kilometers, at at a lower cost than current technologies."
But For now, the price of the program is a problem. Defense Secretary Robert Gates canceled what had been an order for a second airborne laser system. The original, will continue to participate in experiments.

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