Someone, somewhere in DARPA, watched Real Genius and said 'Hey, we can DO that!'.

As the article notes, this is Real Genius.

This is fascinating. Could the same machine (PRAD) be adapted to zap mosquitoes in flight and help control disease vectors? Nothing’s worse than waking up to multiple mosquito bites and dreading falling asleep knowing there’ll be more.

Can they butter it mid-air too?