Fire control apparatus for a laser weapon

This patent application discloses a laser weapon fire control computer apparatus for responding in real time to the escort/threat scenario that confronts the weapon. The fire control computer apparatus compares the threat data with stored predicted scenarios to develop a firing strategy menu which takes into account the fact that the laser energy is instantaneously propagated to the target but requires a substantial amount of time to inflict damage. The fire control computer apparatus utilizes the weapon's status, dwell time, slow time and fuel limits to yield a weapon pointing sequence and weapon on-off times.