We are all familiar with Star Wars and Battlestar Gallatica and the numerous other science fiction works that have laser weaponry within their mix. They are currently in existence in things like gas dynamic lasers but the potential to use brief high energy pulses to create a more complex weapon certainly exists. Like any technological weapon they could certainly change the spectrum of war as we know it in the modern world. Laser weapons are considered a Directed Energy Weapon along with sonic weapons and particle beam weapons.