According to a November 5, 2008 article. there was a recent Air Force Scientific Advisory Board report stating "the Advanced Tactical Laser testbed has no operational utility." That does not mean it's not necessarily a good idea, but that it may need further development. The Air Force Research Laboratory continues to run tests and develop the platform. There is some discussion of converting to solid state lasers from the existing chemical lasers. Being much smaller and lighter, solid state lasers might be deployable on smaller platforms. The existing chemical laser platform is being used to develop more advanced control software and hardware and to reduce problems such as "jitter".
