There are several reasons why sci-fi laser weapons will never be possible. For starters, all current weaponized laser technology uses wavelengths of light that are invisible to the human eye.

Ultimately, the laser pistol’s practicality was limited by its low power, the fragility of space environments, and the unlikelihood of astronaut-on-astronaut combat.

Raytheon UK, a division of RTX, plans to integrate a high-energy laser onto a Wolfhound armored vehicle. During four days of testing in the U.S., the laser system “successfully acquired, tracked, ...