Laser Nose
If you thought trucks that shot lasers were cool…
…check out the Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser.
Basically it's a 747 with a high-energy (megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine) laser in its nose for the purpose of taking out enemy ballistic missiles.
In 2010, the Airborne Laser was sent up against two test missiles. It dispatched them both. Here's some video:
Yet the program was cancelled in 2011. Among other reasons, unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) like the X-37B can do the same job for pennies on the dollar. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been testing its own airborne laser above B-1 bombers, and last week, the U.S. Air National Guard began testing similar lasers mounted on unmanned attack drones in North Dakota.
X-37B sends a ship to see Davy Jones