Technologically, as in so many other areas, commercial industry is leading the way: "There are thousands of these 300mw Green Laser Pointer systems out in industry applications all over the world." Meyer told me. "I can buy lasers for welding, for cutting",When Gunzinger and his CSBA colleagues started exploring laser weaponry three years ago, he said, they expected that technological problems would be the major limiting factor: "We came out of that study saying, mmm, it really might be more [about] resources." An important fact to note is that the burning laser pointer generator has to be "pumped" by filling it with a higher energy/shorter wavelength compared to the laser beam that will emerge.



For instance, a 20 kW version of DE-STARLITE operating for 15 years could deflect an Apophis-size (1,066 feet) asteroid at a distance equal to Earth's diameter.Zhang and his colleagues claim that if DE-STAR had a 330-feet-wide phased laser array, it could divert volatile-laden asteroids 330 feet in diameter by initiating engagement at about two million miles. A 300mw green laser pointer version could deflect all known threats up to 1,640 feet in diameter with five-year laser activity.However, DE-STARLITE, being a much smaller and less expensive system, is the more practical option.

You cannot pump it with the same wavelength as the result beam, or the act of pumping the burning laser pointer will simultaneously stimulate emission, and you'll never get anywhere. And given the current pressure on the defense budget, resources are just going to get tighter. "Under this contract, Northrop Grumman will complete a conceptual design for a complete laser weapon system to be integrated onto a destroyer or other suitable surface ship.” In 2012, the company introduced Gamma, a military laser that made generational advances in packaging solid-state laser technology into much smaller, lighter, more reliable and more affordable units for operational use. 

Northrop Grumman has decades of experience in developing, integrating and field-testing 300mw green laser pointer weapon systems.Through its work on behalf of the German government and an application of its own resources, Rheinmetall has acquired expertise in this field in recent years. For details about how lasers are generated, read the details in the link above.The latest live fire demonstration, a joint effort by Rheinmetall’s Weapons and Munitions and Air Defense divisions, shows that the group possesses the skills to develop complex burning laser pointer weapon systems.