Technology Explained

High Energy Laser Weapons

If we examine physical weapons, whether a club or an ICBM, we’ll find they have one very important factor in common – they damage their target by the release of stored energy: in the first instance, kinetic, in the second, the nuclear binding energy of several kilograms of plutonium. In the absolute sense, a weapon destroys its target by transferring a quantity of energy that the target cannot absorb without damaging itself.

USAF ALL. Note the 60 cm aperture of the telescope. The forward fusleage houses a 10.6 m carbon dioxide gasdynamic laser. The hump aft of the
telescope conceals an acquisition and tracking radar system

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