Take the loss and smile. What matters is truth is spreading. If it's because of something you brought extra attention to all the better, so isn't that kinda a win?

Advanced research is probably a decade or more advanced than commercially available in some science disciplines. In other areas, they are actually slightly behind, solely due to the number of people working in that particular field. Needless to say, weapons development is one of the areas that they are more likely two to three decades ahead. Directed energy weapons has been a hot topic since the 1980's. Undoubtedly there has been a substantial amount of funding in that arena, however it is highly probable that it is clasified as TS-SCI and the people involved are very quiet on the subject. Equipping high power lasers onto satellites has been a goal that was achieved in the mid to late 1980's, however that tech has gotten far more advanced since then. I can only speculate what capabilities they currently have, but I would not be surprised if laser tech has advanced to the point where ground targets can be disrupted or destroyed. The big question I have is the amount of attenuation that occurs as it passes through the atmosphere and how much power would remain after the beam is able to strike ground level targets. The other question is how widely dispersed is the beam.