"We're getting actually very close to that kind of capability" of having and deploying energy-directed weapons, Hyten told a Brookings Institution podcast.
The US armed forces also needed to develop hypersonic speed weapons delivery capabilities to reduce its reliance on "nuclear only " strike options, Hyten said.
"The ability to hit any target on the planet at risk we can we do [with] nuclear weapons deployed everyday. But if your only ability to hold a target at risk is nuclear weapons, that is a bad place to be: That is an entrance into a world we don't want to exist. ... [Therefore] we need hypersonic capabilities," he said.
Energy weapons also held the potential to change the current strategic defense situation where missile interceptors cost far more money to build and deploy than the incoming missiles, both short and longer range that were meant to destroy, Hyten added.
Hyten's remarks came just a day after Boeing revealed that the US Missile Defense Agency had managed to successfully test-launch a new ground-based interceptor meant to tackle long-range intercontinental ballistic missile threats.