More Lasers, Please.

* For the Navy's next class of destroyers, one thing is clear: they need a "big-ass laser," according to Bryan McGrath, managing director of the FerryBridge Group.

A laser would provide a cost-effective way to protect aircraft carriers from missiles and other "wicked threats," McGrath said at the Sea-Air-Space exposition. In a potential conflict in the Pacific, "aircraft carriers are going to be among the most important things in our arsenal, because they may be the only way we can apply tactical air power," he said.

"At the end of the day, having a destroyer close by that can lase for seven to 12 seconds on a target that is...