Posted by
Defend America on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 10:40:54 PM
James Carafano: Dumping Airborne Laser leaves America vulnerable
By: James Carafano
Examiner Columnist
February 22, 2010
At 8:44 p.m. PST Feb. 11, 2010 ... for just a second ... man made night into day.
A short-range ballistic missile launched from a sea-based platform
off California's Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center. Moments later,
the Airborne Laser carried aloft in a specially modified 747 detected
it.
Then it cranked up the high-energy laser. That beam struck home,
burning a small hole in the missile. A split-second later, its
structural integrity destroyed, the missile vaporized in a tumbling
corkscrew.
Within two minutes of launch time, it was all over.
Not bad for a defensive weapon once ridiculed as science fiction.
Skeptics even persuaded the Obama administration to slot the airborne
laser for the ninth circle of procurement hell -- a pit for dead-end
research and development programs. But this month's dramatic success
has put the critics on their heels.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Dumping-Airborne-Laser-leaves-America-vulnerable-84912847.html#ixzz0gOi5Zj9P