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Air Force Years Away From Flying Laser Weapons

Dan Parsons By
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Air Force Years Away From Flying Laser Weapons
An AC-130. Photo: U.S. Air Force

The United States. military has long wanted to mount directed energy weapons like lasers on aircraft to perform various missions currently done with old fashioned guns and missiles, but it could be up to a decade or longer before the systems are scaled to fly and powerful enough to destroy targets.The Air Force in 2007 mounted a chemical oxygen-iodine laser aboard a Boeing [BA] 747-400 that was tested as a defense against inbound ballistic missiles. Funding was cut three years…

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