Abstract: The experimental study on buckling failure of the axially compressed cylindrical aluminum shell irradiated by CW CO₂ laser beam is presented. It is shown that the heat softening of surface material will induce buckling failure of the compressed cylindrical shell, and the critical buckling load decreases with increasing of incident laser energy. Considering the persistent axial compression and the behavior of the post buckling, the failure induced by laser may cause catastrophic collapse of shell.