Papabear #75:
“For high altitude engagements against ballistic missiles, both you and your target are above the weather.”
Exactly what I said at a meeting in the Pentagon in 1993. And at that time we were talking about shooting down AIRPLANES from space. “In all weather?” asked one officer increduously. “At 50,000 ft it’s always all weather.” I replied.

The O-6 running the meeting agreed with me and told us that Gen Abramson, the head of SDI, and told a bunch of pilots that the only reason he was not demonstrating the ability to shoot down airplanes from orbit was that it was politically too hot to handle. The general said “It’s like this. You get an order to deploy to Europe and you are cruising along in your F-15 above the Atlanic and something you don’t even know is there blows you out of the air.” That got their attention!

And power on orbit is not a problem, really. The most powerful lasers we have are powered not by electricity but by what are essentially exotic rocket propellants. That was true when I was working with the Airborne Laser Lab people to shoot down ballistic missiles in 1982 and it is still true today. You just fill’er up when required. And if you do get electric powered high energy lasers you can just use nuclear power to run them.

“At lower altitudes, like ship versus surface skimming missiles, weather becomes much more significant.”

The weather does become more significant down low – but so do the aerodynamic consequences of putting even a tiny tiny hole in a missile.