Boeing's Airborne Laser Begins Testing

Well, it appears that the oft delayed Boeing project^*, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Boeing 747 airborne laser (ABL) is actually ready to start shooting at some stuff, albeit for very short (under 1 second) duration.

I'm of the camp that believes that the issues involved with chemical lasers, specifically the logistical issues raised by the exotic and toxic chemicals that they need to carry in order to work, mitigate against them finding much use in the battle field, particularly since ganging together solid state lasers seems to be advancing very rapidly now.

^*All of their stuff appears to be "oft delayed."