The US Navy keeps trying to find new and different ways to blow things up.   Last December it demonstrated an electromagnetic railgun potentially capable of hitting a target 100 miles away.  Recently, it has used a a solid-state laser, aboard the USS Paul Foster, to set a small board on fire over a mile away while both vessels were under way.

Video: Navy Laser Sets Ship on Fire

Thanks to Irwin Bryan and Phil Leon for passing the article along.