Comment Re:Slashdot, Reuters, and above comment: all wrong (Score 2, Informative) 297
1. Two targets were destroyed - one liquid and one solid fueled. This puts the lie to the above comment, and the Slashdot article that implies that they only shot a liquid-fueled target because it was easier. Furthermore, the solid-fueled target was identical to one that the ALTB had destroyed in flight a week earlier.
The press release you link to states that they only shot down one target in this test - the liquid fueled one.
Less than one hour later, a second solid fuel short-range missile was launched from a ground location on San Nicolas Island, Calif. and the ALTB successfully engaged the boosting target with its High Energy Laser, met all its test criteria, and terminated lasing prior to destroying the second target. The ALTB destroyed a solid fuel missile, identical to the second target, in flight on February 3, 2010.
So it fired its high energy laser at the second target, but switched off the laser before actually destroying it. However they had previously destroyed an identical target.