The U.S. have successfully taken out a ballistic missile with a high-powered laser beam mounted to a plane, it revealed yesterday.
The U.S. Missile Defence Agency (MDA) announced the feat after the test overnight on Thursday in central California.
The plane uses lasers to lock onto the missile and follow its trajectory and then brings it down with a single shot from its nose – all in a matter of seconds.
It is the first successful test of a futuristic, directed energy weapon and realises what had previously just been a science fiction fantasy.
