The Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed weapons system is a megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser mounted inside a modified Boeing 747. It is designed to destroy tactical ballistic missiles while in boost phase.
Former US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said this of the program: “I don’t know anybody at the Department of Defense who thinks that this program should, or would, ever be operationally deployed. Right now the laser would have to orbit inside the borders of Iran in order to shoot down a missile in the boost phase. And if you were to operationalize this you would be looking at 10 to 20 747s, at a billion and a half dollars apiece, and $100 million a year to operate. There’s nobody in uniform that I know who believes that this is a workable concept.”
Funding for the program was cut in 2010 and the program was canceled in December 2011.
