Unexpectedly, Navy’s Superlaser Blasts Away a Record | Danger Room | Wired.com: The free-electron laser is one of the Navy’s highest priority weapons programs, and it’s not hard to see why. “We’re fast approaching the limits of our ability to hit maneuvering pieces of metal in the sky with other maneuvering pieces of metal,” says Rear Adm. Nevin Carr, the Navy’s chief of research. The next level: “fighting at the speed of light and hypersonics” — that is, the free-electron laser and the Navy’s Mach-8 electromagnetic railgun.
Currently, the free-electron laser project produces the powerful beam in the world, able to cut through 20 feet of steel per second. If it gets up to its ultimate goal, of generating a megawatt’s worth of laser power, it’ll be able to burn through 2000 feet of steel per second. Just add electrons.