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I think this will be outdated within a few years.
A lot of work is being put into using lasers. The problem is getting them strong enough while still small enough. Real strong lasers today are chemically driven, thus take up lots of space. Another problem is making mirrors strong enough to focus the beam.
Fix that, and you have a system that would be able to zap incoming mortars, missiles against airliners, or ICBMs.
One idea has been to put a chemical laser on a 747. It sounded serious, but I don't know what came out of it.
Not too long ago Intel invented a way to create lasers from silicon circuits, something which might not only help computing but also here. Perhaps a chip out of diamond would help, which is also on the horizon, albeit a few years out from advanced prototypes (I'm not sure, haven't heard much lately). The value of these two points would be that the laser would be smaller, faster and easier to control, and very heat resistant.
Chemically made diamonds exist already, 100% pure. Japan has announced a few milestones in creating chips of diamond.
Don't know much about the effects of depleted uranium, I've heard from a biased nuclear scientist that it doesn't radiate much.
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