Few things sound more 21st century than the phrase "laser weapons," but here's something you may not know. The United States government shot down a target drone with a laser in 1973, decades before laser weapons were considered ready for prime time. The incident, which took place in the New Mexico desert, happened more than 40 years before the U.S. military actually deployed a functioning laser weapon.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the Department of Defense R&D organization that later gave birth to the Internet, had begun working on weapon lasers under a project known as Eighth Card. It was part of an effort to create a laser plane that could escort bombers in a nuclear war, protecting them from Soviet interceptor jets and surface-to-air missiles.
During a series of tests undertaken in mid-November 1973, the Eighth Card laser targeted a MQM-33B unmanned drone. The laser burned through the drone's skin and damaged its control systems, sending it wildly out of control. ARPA had thoughtfully added a parachute to the drone. The frame floated back to earth where the laser's effects could be studied.
Despite the enormous amount of effort put into weaponizing lasers—vast sums of money and decades of effort—laser weapons only recently reached operational status. The AN/SEQ-3 Laser Weapon System went to sea on the USS Ponce in December 2014, protecting the ship from smaller, low-end threats such as drones, armed speedboats, and manned aircraft.
Kyle Mizokami is a writer on defense and security issues and has been at Popular Mechanics since 2015. If it involves explosions or projectiles, he's generally in favor of it. Kyle’s articles have appeared at The Daily Beast, U.S. Naval Institute News, The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, Combat Aircraft Monthly, VICE News, and others. He lives in San Francisco.
