Does anyone know how far laser beams can go and be effective?
I can tell you a story I was told. A person I knew from church said he was taking care of a person who was dying from cancer. This individual was working for the military back in the 70s and said he developed a laser that during a test run was able to shoot a fighter jet out of the sky. To add credence to this story the individual I know said while he was at this individual house two men in suits approached him and told him that this man may be delirious and to never repeat anything he told him.
A ground-based laser can easily reach and damage a slow-moving target past 100,000 feet altitude if the weather is clear.
Prototype aircraft-based lasers have successfully destroyed target drones in flight.
Whether we actually have such weapons deployed is an open question. Perhaps the Chinese were looking for an answer to that question with their provocation flights over the United States.