The Defense Department -- buoyed by recent rapid advances in directed-energy technology and alarmed by North Korean progress in maturing intercontinental rockets as well as other potential adversary threats -- is readying a proposal to accelerate development of the Holy Grail of lasers: a megawatt-powered weapon capable of killing ballistic missiles. Specifically, Pentagon leaders will consider a decision as soon as this spring to leapfrog a previous goal to target development of a 500-kilowatt laser and instead scale up from...
