[El Gato]

You could have the AWACS do double-duty and mount the laser ON the AWACS. Be able to track fighters and missiles AND shoot them down from long range.

You obviously did not look at the cutaway, the laser fills the 747, it wouldn't even fit on a 707 airframe, let alone leave any rooms for the stuff already on the AWACS. I've been in one, they are pretty crowded.

[PapaBear3625]

You obviously did not look at the cutaway, the laser fills the 747, it wouldn't even fit on a 707 airframe, let alone leave any rooms for the stuff already on the AWACS.

This is a prototype. Once they get it working better, they will figure out how to make it more compact.

And rather than make it fit in a 707 airframe, I was thinking more of having an AWACS radar attached to a more modern plane ( the cancelled E-10 was supposed to be based on a 767, but they might see about using a 747 as the base for a merged AWACS/laser system)