Directed energy.

• Position: Miss - Military lasers - Brief article

* Where are our high-tech laser weapons that can take out an enemy tank. missile or aircraft without a traditional warhead?

Decades of research have gone into making science fiction weapons into science fact, but it's hard to see where they have made any impact on the battlefield at all.

Laser dazzlers, a nonlethal weapon that is designed to warn motorists at checkpoints to slow down or stop, could be considered a "hit." But that's small potatoes compared to the billions spent to develop high-flying concepts such as the airborne laser program, which seeks to mount a high-power chemical laser on lumbering 747 aircraft so it can shoot down ballistic missiles.

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The airborne laser has cost taxpayers almost $5 billion since 1996. noted a July 2007 Congressional Research Service report.

"Program skeptics continue to raise several issues." the report said. "Their questions include the maturity of the technologies m use...