The following is the Sept. 13, 2022 Congressional Research Service report, Department of Defense Directed Energy Weapons: Background and Issues for Congress.
From the report
Directed energy (DE) weapons use concentrated electromagnetic energy, rather than kinetic energy, to combat enemy forces. Although the United States has been researching directed energy since the 1960s, some experts have observed that the Department of Defense (DOD) has invested billions of dollars in DE programs that failed...
https://news.usni.org/2022/09/14/report-to-congress-on-defense-department-directed-energy-weapons