Lawrence Livermore National Labs / Scaled Composites Defender

[flateric]

Defender - A high altitude (>20 km) UAV with a semiconductor diode laser pumped solid state heat capacity laser weapon for boost phase destruction of tactical ballistic missiles. The vehicle has a lethal kill radius of up to 200 km. (courtesy of Lawrence Livermore National Labs and Scaled Composites).

 

[Michel Van]

that must be a Megawatt laser !
how big is this plane ?
boeing 474 size ??

 

[LowObservable]

Was this the vehicle for which Raptor was intended as a demonstrator?

 

[Just call me Ray]

Hmmmm, I wonder if maybe it was intended as a "booster" or "relay" for a ground-based laser.

 

[flateric]

Was this the vehicle for which Raptor was intended as a demonstrator?

I'm happy to find at least this image - you must know well that all the Shin Bet guys can hardly compare to Burt Rutan's security staff (consisting of how many - one or two persons, may be?).

 

[flateric]

that must be a Megawatt laser !
how big is this plane ?
boeing 474 size ??

may be more

 

[yasotay]

"1.21 Gigawatts!!!"

Sorry, line from a famous American comedy movie (Back to the Future). I assume this is suppose to be a more cost effective means to achieving the ABL mission, now done by modified 747.

You must one of these days publish "Aviation esoterica hunting", by Flateric. Where do you get some of this magic? ;D

 

[flateric]

Where do you get some of this magic? ;D

NASA Center for Advanced Engineering Environments. Illustration, I suppose, is from one of these USAF 'New World Vista' studies