Ultra-short duration pulse lasers

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

They easily penetrate the energetic plasmas they create, allowing the beam to pass through and drill deeply."

That's talking about penetrating atmosphere, not penetrating armor. And in fact they still have to let the channel evacuate, plasma at the density of room temperature air will still block them pretty effectively (the difference is that plasma at 1% of the density of room temperature air will block visible light but won't be super effective against the shorter wave radiation).