The first shoot-down of a ballistic missile by an airborne laser could be less than a year away, following "first light" ground firings of the high-energy weapon on board a modified Boeing 747-400F. But when that lethal demonstration takes place and what happens next depends on whether a skeptical Congress cuts the program's Fiscal 2009 funding. Seven brief firings, each lasting less than a second, were conducted at Edwards AFB, Calif., on Sept. 7-8, marking the first time the megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) had been fired inside the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser (ABL). The crew was on board, operating the laser as they would in flight, and tests were conducted with the chemical fuel and laser at simulated altitude conditions.
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