Advancements in fiber and femtosecond lasers are mustering an expanded arsenal of solutions in areas from the combat theater to the plant floor.
HANK HOGAN, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Ever since the laser first appeared in the public consciousness, popular culture has reframed it as a prospective weapon of infinite range and power. This is largely because popular culture is unshackled from the concerns of engineering and physics. But the idea of light-based directed energy has nevertheless prompted interest and investment in the laser’s potential military applications — where it is most often viewed as a defensive countermeasure. Decades of government-funded demonstrations have yielded promising results that indicate laser-based weapons are finally ready for the battlefield.
Chief among the recent advancements are high-power lasers capable of producing tens of kilowatts of energy in a beam that can knock down an unmanned aerial system (UAS) or a drone, which are among today’s proliferating threats. Further out on the horizon are systems operating in the hundreds of kilowatts, designed to destroy much larger and more distant targets such as missiles.
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