Official attention turned instead to giant ground-based lasers whose beams would be bounced off orbiting mirrors toward enemy targets.

If the plan is approved by Congress, which seems likely, the giant laser will give the sprawling, 8,500-person laboratory a new lease on life.

Night had indeed fallen, and searchlights cut through the darkness like giant lasers.

Tangram has a nearly impenetrable surface with the weakness being a section that opens up, revealing a red eye, before it fires a giant laser.

The aim of the disputed idea is to build a giant laser running on hydrogen and fluorine gas.

These can range anywhere from simple grenades to giant lasers and mines.

Stephen Harper wants to put a giant laser on the moon.

The giant pulsed laser can produce light bursts as short as 30 nanoseconds.

Just cooling the giant laser will require an estimated 450 million gallons of water a year, a considerable amount in such an arid region.

Critics say these advantages will never be great enough to make the giant laser a cornerstone in achieving the anti-missile goal.