Defensive Lasers for Aircraft

It kind of pisses me off I have to hear about this stuff in a British blog. Apologies for reposting the entire post. It is very short and straight to the point.

Defensive lasers for aircraft Dale Amon (Belfast, Northern Ireland/Laramie, Wy)  Aerospace Here is a fascinating teaser for a Janes subscription only article: US military pinpoints date for HELLADS ground test. The United States military told Jane's it is on schedule for a 2010 ground test of a lightweight high-energy laser that could be installed on a tactical aircraft to destroy missiles, rockets and mortars. The laser, known as the High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS), is being developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and General Atomics, along with several other contractors. It is all coming together about as I expected, although perhaps a little faster than I really believed. samizdata.net

I keep hearing whispers of this sort of thing. What makes me think it is the real thing is how difficult it is to find any concrete information about it. I saw a TV show a million years ago talking about a big rotating mirror on top of a DC-10 or something that worked for zapping ground to ground missiles as they were taking off. Every little bit you weaken the missile on take off, makes for a huge difference as it flies to its target. This sort of design sounds like a smaller version that attacks things headed straight for the aircraft.