A constellation of laser battle stations in low Earth orbit could intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in their boost phase. If such lasers are available decades hence, they will face fast-burn ICBMs and find their task more difficult. How difficult is shown by an elementary analysis taking into account laser retarget time.
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Garwin, R. How many orbiting lasers for boost-phase intercept?. Nature 315, 286–290 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/315286a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/315286a0
