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My thought was "oh, that's nice", until I happened upon the "mile away" part. That gave me chills. I would have thought humidity and one mile of atmosphere would be much more problematic than it seems. Also, 15kW? That could be on a tank/car.
These are going to be turned against people some day. That is an awful thought. I have a question: The Free Electron Laser, will supposedly cut through 2000 feet of steel in a second. Would it be possible to construct a perfect reflector for that wavelength? Also, I think it's more of a 'pew pew' than a 'byooo byoooo' that we are looking for. ;)
I wondered the same thing -- and I wonder about the difference between being killed by a bullet and being killed by a laser... would the pain be the same? I've never been killed by either, but if I had a choice, I think I'd rather go for the Free Electron Laser than a bullet.
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I have this impression that being killed by a laser might not be as painful. There would be no force or bruising. I know that exit bullet wounds look much worse than entrance wounds. The laser would either cut you in half, or leave a freaky cartoon hole, which might be cauterized.
Damn, according to Wikipedia: The free-electron laser has the widest frequency range of any laser type, and can be widely tunable, currently ranging in wavelength from microwaves, through terahertz radiation and infrared, to the visible spectrum, to ultraviolet, to X-rays. That makes it pretty tough to make an effective reflector shield. :/