[ableChair]

It is much easier to damage the retina, than to burn through missiles

That's not the point. The point is that it takes NO WHERE NEAR 10 exp 16 watts to burn metal. In other words, most of the energy is LOST IN THE ATMOSPHERE. That, in turn, implies a VERY powerful laser would be needed to blind pilots miles off. Why is this so hard to understand?

[DB]

You're trying to melt a lot of metal in a very short time.

Energy = time x power.

Short times take enormous power levels to develop enough energy to melt big things in that time.