[kingu]

I suppose someone will, somewhere along the line, figure out how to power a 100kw laser. An aircraft carrier should have enough excess power, but...

[Lucky Dog]

You are thinking of "continuous" power. A burst of 100 KW would relatively easy to achieve...think of the power put out by an cannon firing a shell.

[Sender]

I've seen a 5-watt Lumistar LED flashlight with a 'bulb' the size of a peanut...bright too. If even that were in the form of a laser diode, it would be impressive.

I don't know how hard it is to scale up the ubiquitous, cheap laser diode.

[El Gato]

I suppose someone will, somewhere along the line, figure out how to power a 100kw laser.

That's peak power, not average or continuous. You just charge up a capacitor, and then let 'er rip. Plus there are all sorts of interesting power supply possibilities. Including explosive magneto-hydrodynamic generators.