>Directed energy weapon >Abstract >A directed energy weapon includes a number of laser units, each including a fiber laser generating an output beam with a power of at least 1 kW from a fiber, an objective lens arrangement for focusing the output beam into a focused beam directed towards a target, and a fine adjustment mechanism for adjusting a direction of the focused beam. A beam deflector arrangement is deployed to deflect a portion of the focused beam from each laser unit as a deflected beam in a direction in predefined relation to a direction of the focused beam. An angle sensing unit generates an output indicative of a current direction of said deflected beam for each of said laser units. A controller actuates the fine adjustment mechanisms based on the output from the angle sensing unit to maintain a desired relative alignment between directions of the focused beams. That definition from the patent is pretty minimal. According to that definition, I have access to two directed energy weapons. They are both large laser CNC machines with power outputs of over 2KW and have a focusing system, beam alignment in coarse and fine and optical systems that allow the beam to be sensed and deflected for safety and performance uses. While 2KW beam output is capable of going through steel and aluminum, the conditions needed to do that are quite specific. They are not good weapons because of those conditions so it's odd that the specifications of the patent are so minimal. Patents are generalized for the most part so the existence of such a patent really don't give away what is actually possible or actually being actively worked on. Soooo, patents don't really mean much in the grand scheme of things. Also, this is rather specific to fiber lasers which is NOT what platforms like the ABL are. It's kind of describing an apple where the ABL is a rack of ribs. It's not a perfect alignment to what laser-based weapons actually are. Fiber lasers != chemical lasers