"The US army has, for the first time, shot down an artillery shell in flight using a high-powered laser weapon. The laser tracked and locked on to the shell, before firing a stream of concentrated light energy photons and destroying it. The US Army's Space and Missile Defence Command said that "seconds later, at a point well short of its intended destination, the projectile was destroyed". The Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) is being developed by the TRW Corporation for use by the US military and the Israeli Defence Ministry." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2407807.stm
But the laser was built by an international company called TRW whom I used to work for before they sold the aeronautical side of the business to goodrich. For more info visit http://www.trw.com/
Before long we will all have laser pistols in our pockets and bionic augmented people walking around.
There are working prototypes of that already. I remember reading something on T3s website about it a couple of years ago. It uses 3 lasers and it can seize muscles at something like 3km.
