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A successful ground test has moved the\u00a0<\/strong>U.S.<\/span>\u00a0military one big step closer to putting anti-missile lasers on its\u00a0aircraft.<\/p>\nA ground-based laser shot down \u201cseveral\u201d missiles in flight during an April 23 test at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, Air Force officials\u00a0said. Run by the Air Force Research Laboratory, or\u00a0AFRL<\/span>, the test was part of the Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator, or SHiELD, a program intended to protect aircraft from incoming\u00a0missiles.<\/p>\n AFRL<\/span>\u00a0officials said security reasons prevented them from saying how many missiles were downed in the\u00a0test.<\/p>\n The laser that the Air Force lab used for the test was ground-based, and on the heavy\u00a0side.<\/p>\n \u201cThe final SHiELD system, however, will be much smaller and lighter, as well as ruggedized for an airborne environment,\u201d an\u00a0AFRL<\/span>\u00a0statement said. Flight tests are planned for\u00a0fiscal 2020. The Air Force contracted weapons maker Lockheed Martin to build the laser in\u00a02017.<\/p>\n The military has already tested ground-based and ship-based lasers against incoming drones; at $1 per shot, anti-drone lasers are expected to become a cost-effective defense against tomorrow\u2019s unmanned swarms. But downing missiles is harder. They move a lot faster than drones. Moreover, it\u2019s a big technical challenge to shrink a laser system with the power to take down a missile into a package that can fit on a plane, and keep waste heat from frying everything\u00a0onboard.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the first time the Pentagon has tried it. In 2010, the Air Force mounted and fired off a megawatt-class chemical laser aboard a modified Boeing 747. But\u00a0chemical lasers are unstableand dangerous compared to modern solid-state lasers. Another approach is using lasers to blind incoming missiles rather than physically damage them; Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems markets\u00a0airborne lasers\u00a0that do this to protect planes from shoulder-fired\u00a0missiles.<\/p>\n While the\u00a0AFRL<\/span>\u00a0works on SHiELD, which is aimed at stopping ground-to-air and air-to-air anti-aircraft missiles, the Missile Defense Agency is trying to figuring out whether a\u00a0high-energy laser mounted on an F-35\u00a0could disable ICBMs. Results from initial studies are expected later this\u00a0year.<\/p>\n