~1000 nanometers puts it in the infrared; J = Joules = Watts for the sake of this argument, so, 180 watts; 18 nanoseconds is a really, really short pulse.
Hmm. Powerful. Invisible to the human eye in both wavelength and duration.
Target illumination?
I'm guessing it is a yttrium aluminium laser of some description, maybe used for ablation of some type, spectroscopy maybe?
I've used similar lasers at just over 1000nm that can wallop out 1 GW cm−2 for 10 ns. Now that would bring a tear to your eye...