Maastricht - The US announced yesterday that it intends to fire a military laserbeam from New Mexico at an air force satellite within days to test the vulnerability of American satellites to laser weapons.
The US Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, made the announcement through a Pentagon spokesman, Mr Ken Bacon, to reporters travelling with Mr Cohen to a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Maastricht. Mr Bacon stressed that two brief beams will be fired at an older orbiting air force satellite from the army laser, called "Miracl", from White Sands missile range in the New Mexico desert, but would not try to destroy the satellite.