PENTAGON: Star Wars fans, calm down. The US Air Force wants to fire a 100-plus-kilowattlaser from a small plane. And not just any airplane, Air Force Research Laboratory officials. The last laser on an airplane — the megawatt Airborne Laser, which filled a converted 747 and cancelled in 2011 — the 2022 demonstration will be fired from a fighter.
But this isn’t a real-world X-Wing. It probably won’t even be an F-35A because that’s astealth aircraft that carries its weapons inside to give it a smaller radar cross section. Instead, the 2022 weapon will be built into an external weapons pod.