Submission + - Laser weapon shoots down airplanes in test (defpro.com)
airshowfan writes: Boeing's directed-energy weapons (a.k.a. frickin' laser beams) have been getting some attention lately. The Advanved Tactical Laser (ATL) is a C-130 that famously burned a hole through a car's hood, and the YAL-1 AirBorne Laser (ATL) is a 747 that shoots a laser from its nose that is powerful enough to bring down an ICBM. But even cooler is the Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments (MATRIX), a laser that is mounted on a truck (which probably costs less than a 747, but who knows) and that can shoot down small aircraft, as shown in the picture on this article. (The Laser Avenger supposedly also has this capability). We live in the future!
