Many current laser military applications use cw laser to burn through the target with continious illumination over the target for a few seconds. It works well on low altitude drones and short ranges of a few kms. However for higher speed targets like emerging hypersonic cruise missiles continious mechanical steering and illumination of target for a long time within a very short range would not be sufficient to stop the missile.
I think pulsed lasers have a future as well. Pulsed lasers have a much higher power output within a very short amount of time. Same laser emitter vehicle will have a longer range with very short bursts and higher power output from the laser. General applications are used to shape the surface of things like skin tattoo removal application example below. It does not burn through the target like cw but scratches the surface of the target with very short bursts. Hypersonic aerodynamic bodies like cruise missiles would be too heavy to fly far if shielded unlike ballistic missiles and a small scratch on the nose section or wings would use its speed against it and can destroy the target by air friction although for slower drones and cruise missiles its effect would be very limited.
I think pulsed lasers have a future as well. Pulsed lasers have a much higher power output within a very short amount of time. Same laser emitter vehicle will have a longer range with very short bursts and higher power output from the laser. General applications are used to shape the surface of things like skin tattoo removal application example below. It does not burn through the target like cw but scratches the surface of the target with very short bursts. Hypersonic aerodynamic bodies like cruise missiles would be too heavy to fly far if shielded unlike ballistic missiles and a small scratch on the nose section or wings would use its speed against it and can destroy the target by air friction although for slower drones and cruise missiles its effect would be very limited.
Rapid Pulse Laser Weapons Could Be The Pentagon's Future Edge - Breaking Defense
Ultrashort pulse lasers, which fire a trillion watts for one-quadrillionth of a second, are a technology too early for military use today. But that won't always be the case, says Joe Shepherd of Booz Allen Hamilton.
breakingdefense.com
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