Watch Rare Footage of a US Military Laser Weapon Shooting Down a Drone in 1973

It was the first time in military history a laser weapon had disabled an aerial target.

A laser weapon system developed under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Project DELTA during the first-ever shootdown of a drone with a laser on November 13, 1973. (US Air Force via Sonda/YouTube)

If military laser weapons are the future of warfare, they’ve been the future for a long time.

In 2023, journalist Matt Novak unearthed foo…