MOSCOW, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Laser weapons are a promising direction for research and development, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
"Who could think in the time when the book Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin was being written that this will be made in reality, and this has been in the making," Putin told a meeting of students ' sports organizations.
He referred to the science fiction written in 1927 by Soviet writer Alexei Tolstoi, in which a fictional "laser cannon" was invented by its main character.
The president made his remarks answering a proposal from a participant of the meeting to make a military game Lasertag mandatory for students' physical and patriotic training. Hand laser pointers are used in that game as a "weapon."
According to Putin, laser weapons have been a very promising area of military scientific research.
In September 2010, then Chief of Staff Commander Nikolai Makarov said Russia had been developing aircraft-based lasers for combat purposes.
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