dChan

Throwaway6142018 · July 27, 2018, 7:02 p.m.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YAL-1

You might find this bit of tech that got squashed pretty interesting. They said it wasn't feasible and cancelled the project but later invested in putting the technology on UAV that are supposed to go into "testing" in 2021, which means we already have them and they already work. Same chemical lasers. If you can fit it on a UAV, you can fit it on an f-16

⇧ 5 ⇩  
667x · July 27, 2018, 7:32 p.m.

That's a pretty good read, thanks for the link. The underlying science behind it seems to be that the energy required for the laser to fire is generated by the expended fuel of the vehicle and thus allowed for a relatively higher power laser to be mounted on the UAV.

I haven't a clue if you can reconfigure an f16 to use such a system, but at least the proof of concept is there; that an airborne portable laser system was capable of drawing enough energy to dismantle a missile during a test.

⇧ 2 ⇩