Drones, laser beams, ships, START treaties: This is the new missile defense

[unhappycamper]

Drones, laser beams, ships, START treaties: This is the new missile defense
By Kevin Baron
Published: August 17, 2010

Drones with laser beams attached to their heads? It ain’t easy being the Missile Defense Agency director.

In a little over an hour, Lt. Gen. Patrick J. O’Reilly juggled the complex physics of solid-fueled rocket boosters, the wary diplomacy of Russians who refuse U.S. invitations to join the missile defense network, the Senate politics of nonproliferation treaties, the faulty production lines of giant defense contractors, all amid the shrinking budget “efficiencies” of Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Not to mention, O’Reilly and his intelligence agency counterparts keep tabs on more than 6,000 missiles and 1,000 launchers that exist outside of NATO, the U.S., China and Russia. But drones with freakin’ laser beams attached to their heads? Well, it has come up.

Tonight, MDA will attempt the latest test of its airborne laser, an effort to shoot down a missile at more than 100 miles away, or twice the range as the first test. The exact range is classified but O’Reilly said the first test showed it was possible.

~snip~

He explained, the No. 1 missile threat to the continental U.S. comes via intermediate-range missiles that travel 1,000-2,000 kilometers. The U.S. has no such missiles in its arsenal, so it has to build them solely to try and shoot them down.