Analysis: Laser next military 'must have?'

Guardian Commercial Airline Anti-Missile System
The grand opening of Northrop Grumman's new production facility for solid-state military lasers last week was touted as the beginning of an age when high-powered lasers will do the work of many of the tactical missiles the United States currently must haul around as it carries out campaigns in far-flung locales.

Long relegated to the realm of science fiction, lasers have quietly moved to the brink of becoming a reality at the front-line level where they could conceivably offer troops unprecedented protection at a relatively low cost that Congress might find hard to resist.

"These systems will shoot down rockets, mortars and short-range missiles and will become critical elements of land, sea and airborne platforms," Mike McVey, president of Northrop's Directed Energy Systems division, said on a recent conference call with reporters.

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