SilsoeSid,
My apologies for the name error - no insult intended, just a silly mistake.
The link I gave was for the Red Greatland, which is line focused - as I thought I said.
The point I am trying to make is that high power lasers, focused to a dot, are very dangerous to pilots. (As we all know). These are usually referred to as "pointers" and will concentrate their power in a small circle at long range. They are often so powerful that the beam is visible as a line from pointer to target.
Low power lasers, focused to give a line across the "target" are not dangerous and have been deliberately designed to be safe. Since the 5mW is now spread across a long line (perpendicular to the laser to observer axis) the amount of power falling on the observer is minimal.
I am not a pilot, I have not been lased in the cockpit but I do lase pilots (with their permission) in product trials to confirm that those lasers designed as ground to air signalling devices are safe.
But I do stress that I am talking about lasers developed closely with pilots for safely signalling to aircrew in the air.
This is why some of the laser products I designed are now being evaluated in a number of countries and we have been tasked to produce a variant for a country's armed forces (including aircrew).
And referring to another comment - light at 635nm wavelength does not make most makes of NVG "bloom" but light at 555nm (green) can cause NVG to "flare". Varies from model to model.