US tests Israeli protection laser

A joint US-Israeli laser designed to protect northern Israel from missile attacks downed its largest rocket to date during a test over the southern New Mexico desert.

The ground-based Tactical High Energy Laser, or THEL, locked onto and destroyed the 11-foot -long, six-inch-diameter rocket in flight over White Sands Missile Range, said Pam Rogers, a US army spokeswoman .

The system, which eventually would be mobile, uses an advanced radar to spot and track incoming rockets and then fires a deuterium fluoride chemical laser to destroy them.

Developers Northrop-Grumman said it could deliver a mobile prototype by 2007 or 2008 if it gets a contract this summer.