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Captain Kirk and Darth Vader may have used them on the silver screen, but the US Navy is working to make death rays a deadly reality in its bid to develop energy and electric weapons.

Death rays, phasers, photon torpedoes and lasers that instantaneously vaporise the enemy; we've seen them all, in films and on TV serials like Star Trek. But science fiction may soon become fact.

The US Navy has a 'Directed Energy and Electric Weapons Program Office' that plans to develop a range of energy and electric weapons, including electromagnetic (EM) rail guns, high-energy lasers (HELs) and high-power microwaves, in the not-too-distant future.