A Laser Defense Hit -- Wall Street Journal
The Airborne Laser scores a hit, even as its budget is being cut.
Never has Ronald Reagan's dream of layered missile defenses—Star Wars, for short—been as politically out of favor as in the Age of Obama. Nor as close, at least technologically, to becoming realized.
The latest encouraging news came Thursday courtesy of the Misssile Defense Agency. The Airborne Laser prototype aircraft this week found, tracked, engaged and simulated an intercept with a missile seconds after liftoff. It was the first time the Agency used an "instrumented" missile to confirm the laser works as expected. Next up this fall will be the first live attempt to bring down a ballistic missile, but this test confirms how far along this innovative effort has come.
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My Comment: I remembered when President Reagan made his Oval Office speech in support of missile defense, his critics in government, the media, and the academic community lambasted his idea as ludicrous at best, "insane" at worse. Senator Kennedy was the fiercest critic, with him and his Democratic colleagues labeling it as Star Wars.
25 years later .... the idea is no longer ludicrous or insane, but very workable and realistic. Unfortunately .... even with the great promise that it shows, this is a project that is going to die this year.
Budget deficits of almost $2 trillion dollars is going to result in massive budget cuts occurring everywhere .... and this particular program .... with its history .... is/will be the first to be gone.