Northrop Grumman Builds Huge-Ass Laser Gun

Ok, ok, ok. I know what you're thinking. Yes, it's a little big. Yes, it looks more restaurant refrigerator than tactical death weapon of the future. But listen to this:

A single beam reached 105.5 kW. The seven-chain JHPSSL laser demonstrator ran for more than five minutes, achieved electro-optical efficiency of 19.3 percent, reaching full power in less than 0.6 seconds, all with beam quality of better than 3.0.

Now, I have absolutely no idea what the hell any of that means but it sure sounds impressive. Try dropping that one on your cube neighbor tomorrow morning.

"You hear about Northrop and their solid-state laser beam that reached 105.5kW? Beam quality of better than 3.0, with an electro-optical efficiency of 19.3%...

(long pause)

"So, how's your bracket?"

[cnet]