Ah an example...
MIRACL, or Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser, is the only known successful directed energy weapon developed by the US Navy. It is a deuterium fluoride laser, a type of chemical laser.
The MIRACL laser can produce over a megawatt of output for up to 70 seconds, making it the most powerful continuous wave (CW) laser in the US, [1] although it is still in a prototype state. Its original goal was to be able to track and destroy anti-ship cruise missiles, but in later years it was used to test phenomenologies associated with national anti-ballistic and anti-satellite laser weapons.
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In 1997, amid much controversy, MIRACL was tested against a US Air Force satellite in orbit. The satellite was disabled but the Air Force did not get the data from the satellite it had hoped for.
FROM Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIRACL