The U.S. Air Force’s Airborne Laser program, or ABL for short,
is a project to put a whopping big laser gun on a 747 and use it to
zap the other guy’s rocketing Scuds from a hundred miles away.
We’re talking major wattage here; safety goggles are not going to help you.
If it sounds silly when I say it, that’s only because
I don’t have millions of dollars dedicated to making it happen.
For information from the Air Force’s point of view, see
The Airborne Laser Program.
If you’re a techie, I recommend Aviation Week & Space Technology
magazine for more objective reporting.
They had a brief article on 4 May 1998, page 32.