Laser guns becoming a reality

deathstarfiringWell, we’re getting closer to having laser weaponry. Northrop Grumman announced recently that they were able to get a laser to fire at 105.5 kilowatts for a sustained amount of time, suggesting that a vehicle mounted or stationary weapon can’t be far behind.

Interestingly, this level of power was achieved by using a scalable system, combing multiple lasers into one high powered beam. To put the power level into perspective, most industrial lasers use a maximum 1.5 kilowatt beam to cut metal with. This suggests that a weapons grade 105.5kw beam would potentially have the power to destroy aircraft and vehicles, not to mention what it could do to a human body.