Why do the lasers in “Star Wars” look like bolts when they are actually beams?Because without these special effects, the movie is really boring. Just imagine if it was in the real world. Hans pulled the trigger, and at the same time we saw a cloud of smoke, there may be some sparks hitting it.
In any case, as others have said, they are not laser pointer, but shock waves. They are effective because they look cool and make a variety of neat sounds. What does a high-power laser pointer that can shoot down drones or airplanes mean for future battles? Not as much as you think.
The problem with high-power lasers is that you need a lot of power to emit them. It is usually 100 times the energy actually provided by the laser-so if you want a 5 watt laser, you need a 500 watt power supply. Now, if you want a power supply strong enough to shoot down an airplane at a distance, you will need a really big power supply. This has several consequences:
Ships and airplanes need to carry large power sources, and they almost certainly need to use capacitor banks to power the actual shooting and charge the capacitors in between. Please note that the 747 must be used for this study because the power supply is too heavy for any smaller device. So… you have a 747, which can shoot down a fighter every few minutes. Between these two, it is actually a fighter’s sitting duck.
Oh, and most modern fighter jets are equipped with at least six air-to-air missiles. Land-based turrets have a different problem-they are vulnerable to attacks on their power source. Again, the number of foreign missiles they may face will exceed the number they can launch.
The end result is that many very complex sensors must be used to detect the return signal, because the return signal is a relatively large single-digit photon from a relatively powerful beam. That’s just to the moon. See that point? This is what the earth looks like, only from Saturn. Yes, the whole planet. The moon is there too, on the left. Now think about how bright a green laser pointer is to be seen from a distance of 4 light years.