The growing budget deficit of the United States every year could not but affect the financing of the Pentagon, which, most likely, will have to significantly reduce its appetites and abandon a number of programs, one of which is the development of an aircraft laser for missile defense.
The development of a laser capable of destroying enemy missiles at a distance of several hundred kilometers was begun by the United States at the very height of the Cold War - in the mid-70s. However, the American failed to achieve great success in this area. Too many problems had to be solved by American specialists to create an aircraft laser. First of all, a powerful source of energy was needed to transmit the laser beam over long distances, and also had to solve the problem with the distortion of the beam in the atmosphere, which greatly complicated aiming and, as a result, the laser hit the target.
The rebirth of this program occurred in the 90s, when the Pentagon was instructed to create an aircraft with a laser on board by 2001, which, by the way, was never done. Seeing that the work on the creation of an aircraft laser is frankly delaying, then US President Bill Clinton proposed to close the program, but did not receive support either in the Senate or in the Pentagon.
In 2009, the US Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, speaking in Congress, said that many years of work on the creation of laser weapons have led nowhere and are a waste of money. Despite this, a year later, off the coast of California, the first successful tests of an aircraft laser installed on board a Boeing 747 took place. The laser successfully hit the ballistic work, and it would seem that the long-awaited success finally came, but the subsequent tests were no longer so successful.
A little later, information was released that in order to create a reliable anti-missile defense, it is necessary to have about 20 Boeing-747s with a laser installed on them. Considering that the cost of one such aircraft is $ 1.5 billion, and their effectiveness, to put it mildly, has not been proven, it is not surprising that the number of people dissatisfied with this program is growing every day.
However, do not give up on the American aircraft laser ahead of time. Despite the fact that many residents of the United States are against funding this program, as well as most Democrats and the Secretary of Defense, the Republican Party can seriously hinder them in this. Trent Franks, GOP member and big proponent of aircraft laser, said:
In general, serious discussions are expected in the United States in the near future regarding this problem, and we, as residents of Russia, can only observe how the Americans cannot agree among themselves. Some of them continue to live during the Cold War and lobby for quite fantastic programs with a huge budget, while others are beginning to realize that it is simply impossible to spend that kind of money on what to do next, but despite the fact that they are in power, they cannot change anything. …
