Our YAL-1A (Airborne Laser) was flying at 40,000 ft firing a megawatt laser at “tens of kilometers” (50) from boost-phase ICBMs circa 2010-2011.
Different from the DANG, a new USA drone (UCAV) uses an electric laser while flying at 65,000 ft firing the same power level at potentially “hundreds of kilometers” away for survivability against air defenses.
A “low-power demonstrator” of the above is planned to fly circa 2021.
nice ...
is the air density the factor ?