MIRACL, or Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser, is a successful directed energy weapon developed by the US Navy. It is a deuterium fluoride laser, a type of chemical laser.
The MIRACL laser first became operational in 1980.[1] It can produce over a megawatt of output for up to 70 seconds,[2] making it the most powerful continuous wave (CW) laser in the US.[3] Its original goal was to be able to track and destroy anti-ship cruise missiles, but in later years it was used to test phenomenologies associated with national anti-ballistic and anti-satellite laser weapons. Originally tested at a contractor facility in California, as of the later 1990s and early 2000s, it was located at a facility () in the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.[4]
The beam size in the resonator is about 21 cm (8.3 in) high and 3 cm (1.2 in) wide.[2] The beam is then reshaped to a 14 x 14 cm (5.5 in x 5.5 in) square.[2]
In 1997, amid much controversy, MIRACL was tested against a US Air Force satellite in orbit[5] at a distance of 432 km (268 mi).[6] The satellite was disabled but the Air Force did not get the data from the satellite it had hoped for.[5]