Inside America's laser revolution as the military nears big battlefield breakthrough

For decades, laser weapons have represented one of the Pentagon's most ambitious technological goals — promising to shoot down enemy drones and missiles at the speed of light without expending costly interceptors. Now, after years of testing and false starts, the Army appears poised to take its biggest step yet toward making that vision a battlefield reality. The Army is nearing a contract award for the enduring high energy laser (E-HEL), a system that, if fielded as expected, would represent th