Missile defense

Pentagon Eyes Laser-Armed Drones to Shoot Down Ballistic Missiles

Four years after the Air Force’s missile-zapping Boeing 747 went to its final resting place in the Arizona desert, the Pentagon is thinking anew about airborne lasers that shoot down ballistic missiles. This time, they’d be mounted on smaller, higher-flying drones.The idea has been around for decades, but the Pentagon’s missile defense chief says its time may have come. The plan is to see how the laser technology matures over the next three years to fit it on a high-altitude drone, Vice Adm. James Syring, the Missile Defense Agency director, said Tuesday

“We have significantly ramped up our program in terms of investment and talking about it more of what else needs to be done to mature this capability,” Syring said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event in Washington.

Such drones would be designed to fly at 65,000 feet or higher, far above bad weather. They would stay aloft for days, even weeks, loitering around launch sites so they could fire upon enemy missiles as they lift off.