[Thermodyne]

The mass of the stream is such a small part of the mass of any weapon that could produce it, that there would be no recoil. The US has been testing an airborne system since the first gulf war, but the test were not all that impressive. I think they mostly helped prove the acquisition and targeting systems. Not to mention that it took a much overweight 747 to carry them. Any system that would be deployed in this time frame has to be basically ready for production. It would take that long to tool up for mass production.