“If you look across these technology efforts, it looks like within the next four to five years, there will actually be prototypes,” said Mark Gunzinger, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a defense research institute…
Today’s solid-state lasers use materials like a thin disk or fiber optic cable and mirrors to produce a coherent beam of light. That allows for a more compact weapons system that can fit on smaller surfaces, like fighter aircraft, said Gunzinger...