Pulse laser turret
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
- Main article: Laser
The Pulse Laser Turret is a Covenant starship weapon that can fire on both space and ground targets. These turreted beam weapons are known to have been mounted on Covenant Destroyers, Covenant Heavy Cruisers, and Covenant Carriers. Strangely enough, UNSC Prowlers also have these energy weapons[1]: highly unusual, as United Nations Space Command starships typically utilize projectile or explosive weaponry. However, it makes sense that, since ONI is the group responsible for reverse-engineering Covenant technology, their ships would be the first to reap the benefits. It is also interesting to note that while they have reversed engineered the laser weapons, they have not been able to do this with the plasma weapons. Its probably because the unsc many uses for laser technology(such as for surgery) and is therefore familiar with it but still the UNSC scientists are still having difficulty trying to understand plasma weapons. You have to remember that the plasma in the unsc batteries and the plasma used by the covenant are apparantly very different
Physics
Before the weapon fires, it must first charge, during the charge a sphere of light energy forms at/around the charging weapon. After it is finished charging, it expels a cyan beam of energy. According to the Halo novels, a section of the ship's shield must first drop to let the weapon fire.[2]
Damage
The weapon is said to have reduced the UNSC frigate Commonwealth's armor in sections three and four to a quarter which would mean (as frigates are known to have 60cm-thick armor) that a pulse laser salvo is capable of melting through 45cm of titanium A battleplate in mere seconds[3]. This means that pulse lasers pose a serious threat to UNSC frigates and smaller, lighter armored UNSC ships as it would only take one salvo to melt through parts of its armor. However, it is believed that larger UNSC ships with thicker armor would have to take multiple pulse laser salvos to show the same results. The Halcyon-class cruisers class only can resists 1-2 pulse lasers and Supercarriers 2-3.
