Originally Posted by therise21

what happens if they put some type of reflective material on the outside of the missle? wouldnt that basically make this obsolete?

Lasers use mirrors to produce energy in the cavity containing the lasing material. Lasers have different wavelengths (similar to frequency in radio waves) and a material for the mirror would have to be coated with a material designed for the wavelength of the laser (secret) to be a reflector. We use goggles with lenses coated for the narrow band but they aren't good for a shift in frequency. A high impact laser would more than likely have a mixture of wavelengths. A plain silver coated mirror is okay to steer low power lasers but the coating will heat up and peel when hit with a high power laser.

What about the anti ballistic missle missle defense system that just came online about 2 months back?

Look at this,

FUTURE FUTURE: