My question is how well do lasers work in battle field conditions with a lot of smoke and dust in the air?
SUPER, they create the dust and smoke, after that, use the russian provided 'Missssillles".
Very well. We’ve been using them for range finding on tanks for decades.
Current lasers do remarkably well penetrating smoke and dust but those things can severely degrade the laser. In my experience, from 15 years ago, is tht lasers do not work well against mirrors; they deflect and confuse them.
“My question is how well do lasers work in battle field conditions with a lot of smoke and dust in the air?”
Not at all.
Dust is usually fairly localize though.
Little known fact, highly classified.
The perfect defense for the laser cannon is the disco ball.