The system was successfully tested recently in a C-130, though it is compact and low-powered and could be installed even in a helicopter as small as a Cobra. While Raytheon is focusing on the Army contract, there are a number of tempting civilian applications as well. One would be mounting laser defense systems on civil airliners to be used as a defense against shoulder fired missiles, which have been used to shoot down a number of government and civil aircraft in Africa over the past decade. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the dangers of shoulder-fired missile attacks were widely discussed, but countermeasures systems were deemed too bulky and costly for civil aircraft.