Shooting down aircraft and incoming ICBM missiles is not easy, especially those moving at upwards of 3-4 times the speed of sound. First you have to detect them and then you have to try to hit them? Good luck. Ah, but you say we can hit them with modern day missiles to a quite high ratio of success?

Indeed, but unless you are a 100% you are scaring me and a swarm of 100s or 1000s of incoming missiles is not very funny and fairly problematic indeed. Additionally what about all the new scramjet technologies, how do we hit those 10 plus times the speed of sound, nothing goes that fast? Well light does and so we should use light.

Now then many of the newest cruise missiles being designed are fast movers which have ground terrain hugging technologies and these will be able to fly supersonic at 50 feet off the ocean deck and even a rogue wave cannot take them out as they can weave and bob along with the terrain. Some of these fast moving missiles will have jet engines, not rocket engines.

I propose using high-energy lasers to shoot them from behind and use their own exhaust as the chemical needed to super heat the lasers. For instance using the CO2 from an aircraft for cruise missile (one with an engine not a rocket motor) we can use its CO2, not ours to guarantee the kill shot and since the CO2 follows the missiles exhaust trail you can always win. Consider this in 2006.