Boeing’s Solid State Laser Weapon System Can Paint a 30kW Death Dot On The Enemy
Cue those "hand quotes", because Boeing's got the freakin' lasers. Called the 'Thin Disk Laser', Boeing's managed to deliver a product that's 30% more effective than what the US' Department of Defense required, and if used in combat, I'm not sure we'd want to know what kind of damage it could do. Let's just say, when less than 1 watt could easily blind you, it seems likely that 30,000 watts could do some ridiculous damage.
Boeing's laser, also referred to as an 'Active Mirror Laser', is a solid-state type that implements a lasing material to act as an amplifier and a mirror to direct the beam. More than one laser is implemented here to form one fused beam, with each individual one having a layer of thick substrate behind it for heat dissipation, which is said to be quite effective.
Unfortunately, examples of what could be accomplished with this laser are not mentioned, nor is it mentioned how long the beam can be used before it needs to cool down (if at all, but it's hard to believe the heat dissipation is so effective that it could continue as long as there's a power source - we are dealing with 30 kW here). It's also not mentioned if and when this will be put into use, but given the fact it's 30% more powerful than the DoD's requirements, it seems likely that the folks there would be rather pleased with Boeing's progress.
