[ableChair]

We're going in circles here. You keep repeating basic physics. You're missing my point. As I've repeatedly said, it cannot take the energy they were contemplating with SDI to destroy a missile at point-blank range. Obviously atmospheric attenuation of ENERGY was the primary factor in the extremely high energy levels. BTW, that is precisely WHY they went to nuclear fueled lasers, TOTAL ENERGY requirements! The point of my posts is that laser energy is attenuated by the atmosphere, and apparently quite significantly. Just look at the SDI numbers to see how significant the attenuation is.

[DB]

Look, if a 5 milliwatt laser will burn your retina in a second that means it takes about 5 milli-joules over a small area to damage the eye.

A 50 watt laser could lose 99.99% of its energy in the atmosphere and still potentially damage someone's eye.

Atmospheric losses aren't nearly as large as you think under clear sky conditions. Different laser frequencies have different losses through the atmosphere. Certain frequencies propagate very well.