The House Armed Services Committee this week will take up a proposal to authorize $34 million to reinstate the Missile Defense Agency's role in laser technology development, a provision that, if agreed to, would approve spending on a pair of directed-energy projects that proponents believe have potential to counter ballistic and hypersonic threats. The chairman's mark of the fiscal year 2022 defense policy bill would add $25 million for continued work on Diode Pumped Alkali Laser Demonstrator Development and $9...