Airborne Laser

The Airborne Laser weapons system is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles in their boost stage. Attached to a Boeing 747-400F[?] freighter, it is still in the test period and if proven successful, a fleet of 7 Boeing 747 with ABL system will be operational by 2008.

The system uses a tracking beam to calculate the missile's course and speed. After locking on to the target the weapon class laser will fire a 3 to 5 second burst from a turret located on the nose of the plane, destroying the missile near its launch area.

The laser fired by the weapon is called a Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser[?], or COIL, invented at Phillips Lab in 1977.