Behind the Bullet: Making Missiles Pointless. Options

[Serialkillerwhal...]

Welcome back to behind the bullet, as today, we'll be talking about the PDL, America's answer to the increasingly common threat of anti-tank missiles.

The PDL mounted on the Paladin and Bradley are simply powered off the engine, and thus not particularly powerful, while the more effective one found on the Avenger however, is powered by it's own chemical fuel, which is expended in bursts, like the armor-repair substance of the Manticore, this too is given the name of "Classified".
The PDL in all cases, hits near a missile, superheating the gas near it into a explosion, throwing the missile irreparably off course. Unfortunately, this only works on targets with a heat signature, and thus cannot track artillery shells. Nevertheless, the PDL has saved countless lives and is still saving many more.

The PDL achieves this explosion through a pulsed laser, which excites the oxygen and nitrogen in the air, which are the two most common substances in air. The resulting blast is comparable to a firecracker, not enough to harm anyone other than a common infantryman at short range, but enough to throw an missile slightly off course, or even detonate it.