Bah, element, shmelement. What's good of an element if you don't have the proper isotope
And about the crafts - seriously, in 1994 we were comparing Interceptors to F-22s and they seemed almost within reach. Now we compare to F-35s and they seem ages ahead of our tech
Oh and about the robots, Japan was still kinda on it in 1994 and HWP seemed not much of a stretch. I was recently on a presentation made by the leading Polish robot producer (don't laugh, their robots are used by US and Israeli forces, so can't be that bad). Production process of a modern robot which is sorta comparable to a HWP takes several years, the thing costs millions of $$$ and it's rather unimpressive to be honest, a dirt-cheap run-of-the-mill suicide bomber is more effective
So I think in robotics we're lagging behind X-Com even more than back then, if only because the limitations of robotics route the western civilization took became more apparent (and Japan is pretty much out of business).