US-Israeli Anti-Rocket Laser Cannon to Stop Katyushas?

CNN.com - Anti-rocket laser cannon gets funding - Oct. 29, 2003

This article discusses the Nautilus system, or Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL), meant for anti-Katyusha defense systems in the north of Israel, which may also be adaptable to combat lower tech Kassam rockets on the Gaza strip border. The Nautilus, which has cost hundreds of million of dollars to develop, is essentially a laser gun, has been developed over the last few years in a joint US – Israeli program. Does anyone know what happened to this program? The last that I could find of it in public discourse was in 2005. It had supposedly successfully shot down 30 Katyushas and several artillery shells, the radar part of it definitely worked (which is designed to track 15 targets simultaneously), and they were trying to figure out how to take it from the testbed to the field.

Many Israeli military technology products get wider use among the US and our allies. The Indians and, by some reports, the Japanese have expressed serious interest in the successful Israeli Arrow anti-missile system. It is easy to imagine the Nautilus system having great usefulness as time goes on, if it works (like for the Green Zone in Bagdad -- or for our border with Mexican some day if our friend Mr. Chavez of Venezuela gets his way).