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Was the time-averaged power higher than 50kW? I think that's what we're talking about here. Peak power is a measurement of something else entirely, and I wouldn't be surprised if this military laser were also pulsed. But it's quite uncommon to find a laser with 50 kW of time-averaged power output, let alone on an airplane, which is what makes this impressive.

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Yeah, a Petawatt is huge, there is nothing on earth (well, see next sentence) that can provide that sort of average power continuously. For comparison, 4PJ is basically the output of a kiloton nuclear weapon, so one second of a PW laser needs a nuclear weapon powering the thing.

Averaging 50kw is impressive. However, unless you can keep targeting the same area for X unit of time the average power output over X period is not important.

That said, I would be shocked if they can dissipate enough heat to fire a continuous beam for an hour. It’s very likely designed to be pulsed over longer time periods.

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