response to eb and tom...
first eb....
As a missile shield the concept is a few decades away from practicality- I know people that work on the air borne laser- it is a stupid concept- The reagan star wars idea is "possible" but not reasonable- it would be nice, but I have seen the infrastructure needed for a 1.5 kW laser- we arent launching that into space any time soon, and to knock down missiles we need megawatt class lasers... Star wars was as much fantasy as the movie...
As for tom, it is EASY to blind an opponent with existing hand held lasers, we can do that now- I am wondering about the major weapons