The cinema has accustomed us to the future is filled with systems based on laser weapons, from guns to swords through guns. By now the twenty-first century can expect that these weapons become real, in this case the hand of this model Rheinnmetall German brand with a power of 50kW and an aspect (unromantic from the point of view of science fiction) like this:
The gun has been tested on a number of test objectives and, apparently, the result has been satisfactory.
In one of them was the laser cannon can rip holes through 15mm steel plate at a distance of 1km. Then, the computer system was able to detect the presence 3Km drone flying away at a speed of 50 meters per second. When approached 2Km drones laser cannon took action and shot down like mosquitoes.
The last test was based on a mortar casting metal balls moving in the air at 50 meters per second. In this case the system was able to detect the ball before it hit the ground and then calculate the mortar position from which it was launched to destroy.
It's not science fiction despite appearances, actually the same company already had similar patterns of less power (10kW) and is easy to foresee that other higher end manufacturing more destructive capacity and a longer range of action. In fact this technology may make obsolete much of the current weapons including tanks, guns on ships, aircraft armament and perhaps Death Stars.
