NOW THIS IS MORE LIKE THE 21ST CENTURY I WAS HOPING FOR: Lockheed-Dynetics team and Raytheon locked in battle to build 100-kilowatt laser for US Army.

The effort will culminate in a test of the entire system in 2022 at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. The Army began its effort to get a more powerful laser onto a vehicle less bulky than a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck in 2016.

Raytheon announced last month that it had won a $10 million contract to develop a laser for the Army’s High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstration program.

Dynetics released a statement Aug. 6, just ahead of the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, revealing it had won, along with its partner Lockheed Martin, the second $10 million development contract to build a laser for the HEL TVD program.

All I want for Christmas is a stealth laser tank — preferably one that hovers.