Applications of Laser Technology in the Army

Abstract

Every year, the use of lasers for military purposes continues to grow. Many armies from different countries use different types of laser systems for their specific combat tasks and actions. Traditional troops of land forces, artillery, air defence, and aviation forces today recognize the laser as a major operational element in increasing the accuracy and effectiveness of combat operations. Lasers are also part of various training sessions in the educational process of military servicemen in military schools and universities. The purpose of this document is to provide the necessary and adequate information about lasers and their application to the army. An additional purpose of this report is to minimize the dangers associated with laser radiation when using lasers in military operations.

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Research Article
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ISSN: 2167-0374
Applications of Laser Technology in the Army
Lyubomir Lazov*, Edmunds Teirumnieks, Risham Singh Ghalot
Faculty of Engineering, Rezekne Academy of Technologies, Atbrīvošanas Aleja 115, Rezekne, LV-4601, Latvia
ABSTRACT
Every year, the use of lasers for military purposes continues to grow. Many armies from different countries use
different types of laser systems for their specific combat tasks and actions. Traditional troops of land forces, artillery,
air defence, and aviation forces today recognize the laser as a major operational element in increasing the accuracy
and effectiveness of combat operations. Lasers are also part of various training sessions in the educational process of
military servicemen in military schools and universities. The purpose of this document is to provide the necessary
and adequate information about lasers and their application to the army. An additional purpose of this report is to
minimize the dangers associated with laser radiation when using lasers in military operations.
Keywords: Laser; Combat lasers; Technology; Beam divergence; Reflectivity; Interaction; Continuous and pulsed
lasing; Laser safety
INTRODUCTION
The idea of using light as a weapon can be traced back to Archimedes.
In the second century AD, the author Lucian wrote that during the
siege of Syracuse (214-212 BC), Archimedes destroyed the enemy
ships with fire. He may have used mirrors acting collectively as a
parabolic reflector to burn the Roman ships attacking Syracuse. At
the dawn of laser technology, French physicist Louis des Brailles
said, “The laser has a great future. It is difficult to predict where
and how it will find its application, however, I think that it is a
whole new age of technology.” The laser has moved in 58 years
from “a solution looking for a problem” to a key technology that
contributes to major sectors of the world economy. Laser devices
are the core technology in instruments performing vital functions
in many industries including transportation, healthcare, and
telecommunications.
History
• The first laser was developed in the 1960s and it was the
beginning of a drastic change in the way the military sees
war. During the Cold War, the US government relied on
military strength through technological advances and, in
the 1960s, multiplied its budget.
• In 1962, according to “Aviation Week and Space
Technology”, the Department of Defence alone promoted
laser spending about 1.5 million US dollars.
• The late 1970s and 1980s were difficult in terms of laser
development in different types of weapon systems and their
application. All branches of the military and industry have
sought to master high levels of laser output power, beam
management and the creation of appropriate optics.
• In 1999, the Department of Defence (US) officially
recognized the lasers as future weapons and started research
and development.
• In 2000, the Joint Technology Bureau for High-Energy
Lasers was created to bring all laser technologies together
to develop a comprehensive laser weapon system that could
be used by the Air Force. With continued advances in laser
development in recent years, modern laser weapon systems
have become a reality and an important part of weaponry
[1].
Types of military lasers
Today, several decades after the demonstration of the first laser
in 1960 by T. Maiman, advances in a wide range of scientific
disciplines have allowed laser technology to evolve and improve
not only for civilians but also for military purposes. High-energy
lasers cast intensively focused energy rays on the subject, typically
powered by chemical fuel, electricity, or a stream of electrons [2].
Over the last 20 years, their application has accelerated rapidly in
the commercial sector where they are routinely used for tasks such
as cutting, welding, marking, engraving, and drilling holes. Lasers
are also used by military and law enforcement agencies to define
targets, transfer information, maintain target, determine distances.
Correspondence to: Lyubomir Lazov, Faculty of Engineering, Rezekne Academy of Technologies, Atbrīvošanas Aleja 115, Rezekne, LV-4601, Latvia,
E-mail: lyubomir.lazov@rta.lv
Received: May 07, 2021; Accepted: May 17, 2021; Published: May 25, 2021
Citation: Lyubomir L, Edmunds T, Risham Singh G (2021) Applications of Laser Technology in the Army. J Defense Manag. 11: 210
Copyright: © 2021 Lazov L, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the term of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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What types of laser sources exist in the military arsenal? The type of
laser is determined by the lasing medium. The three categories in
which lasers are usually classified are chemical, gas, and solid-state.
A laser can also be continuous wave (CW) or pulsed. Each laser
type produces a specific wavelength of radiation. It is important
to note that different wavelengths of radiation interact with the
atmosphere differently. A laser beam is either scattered or absorbed
by air molecules, water vapour, or dust.
Longer wavelengths scatter less and are absorbed more than
shorter ones; the sky is blue because the shorter blue wavelengths
of light are scattered more than the longer ones. Gamma rays are
so highly absorbed that they cannot propagate more than a few feet
in the air. Thus, some laser wavelengths are scattered or absorbed
more than the others. This makes laser wavelengths with minimum
absorption better for use as directed-energy weapons since they
propagate through the atmosphere better. For example, the carbon
dioxide (CO2) laser is strongly absorbed by water vapour; therefore
any use of such a laser near the ocean would be negatively affected.
Near-infrared and infrared lasers have shorter wavelengths with
negligible absorbance. The optimal laser choice, therefore, would
be a wavelength-tuneable laser that could vary depending on the
atmospheric conditions, such as the free-electron laser (FEL).
Chemical lasers
The first chemical laser, hydrogen fluoride (HF), was built in
1965, producing an output of 1 kW. Since then, the Department
of Defence (DoD) has been interested in the research and
development of more powerful chemical lasers for weapon
applications. Subsequently, in 1968, the base demonstration laser
of the Agency for Advanced Research Projects (DARPA) produced
100 kW, and in 1975 the naval-ARPA chemical laser (NACL)
produced 250 kW.
Solid-state lasers
Solid-state lasers (SSLs) use a solid laser medium, such as glass or
crystal, or gemstone (ruby, etc.). Rare-earth impurities such as Cr
(Chromium), Nd (Neodymium), Er (Erbium), Ho (Holmium) or Ti
(Titanium) are placed in the crystal (active medium). Chromium is
the material used in ruby crystals. Nd (neodymium) is used in the
most used lasers, namely the Nd: YAG lasers. For pumping the
active medium (crystal), a flash lamp, an arc lamp, or another laser
is used. This type of solid-state lasers operates at 1064.5 nm and
can operate both in pulse mode and CW mode. A great advantage
of these lasers is the wide range of wavelength and pulse duration.
The power level can reach megawatt when using Q-switching to
achieve short pulse lengths. Different interactions with laser
and other crystalline materials can double the electromagnetic
frequency, which will reduce the wavelength by half, resulting
in the laser beam in the visible range of 532 nm (green). The
wavelength can be further divided into three or four, making this
laser from the near-infrared to ultraviolet wavelength. These lasers
are usually used to indicate targets, measure distances, and so on.
Other advantages of these lasers are that they can be made very
small, user-friendly, cheap and battery-powered. The characteristics
of SSL are shown in Table 1.
Modern fibre laser is a variety of solid SSL lasers. It is powered
by electricity that excites diode lasers pumping the active medium
(glass fibres). This makes such lasers extremely mobile and subject
to support on the battlefield. In most cases, the active medium is
a fibre treated with rare-earth ions such as Er3+, Nd3+, Ytterbium
Table 1: Effects of a laser beam on the eye (from UCELA Laser Safety Line 2009).
Laser Type Wavelength, µm Power Output Purpose
Deuterium Fluoride (DF) 3÷4.2 0.01÷100 MW CW and Pulsed weapon
Hydrogen Fluoride (HF) 2.6÷3 Up to 150 MW CW /Pulsed weapon
Krypton Fluoride (Excimer) 0.249 100 W Pulsed weapon
Nd: YAG 1.06/0.532 0.5÷1000 W CW /Pulsed
Q switched Atmospheric Communication
Nd: YAG 1.06 0.5÷1000 W Pulsed LFT/LTD
Nd: YAG 1.06 0.5÷1000 W Pulsed
Q switched LIDAR
Raman shifted.
Nd: YAG 1.54÷1.55 >10 W Pulsed LIDAR
Nd: YAG 1.06 1 J =10s *1W CW/Pulsed Sensor
Nd: YAG 1.06 1 J =10s *1W CW/Pulsed Illuminator
Tuneable Laser (Titanium: Sapphire) 0.66÷1.18 1 J =10s *1W CW Atmospheric Communication
Fibre Laser Variable 10kJ=10s*1kW CW weapon
GaAs (Gallium -Arsenide) 0.85 >10 W CW/Pulsed LIDAR
GaAs (Gallium -Arsenide) 0.83 Up to 5 W Pulsed Illuminator
In GaAs (Indium-Gallium-Arsenide) 1.55 Up to 5 W Pulsed Illuminator
Vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser 1.06 5 mW÷150 kW CW Illuminator
He-Cd (Helium Cadmium Laser) 0.4416 1 mJ=10s*1mW CW Underwater Communication
Ar (Argon Laser) 0.514 green
0.488 blue 0.1÷5 W CW Underwater Communication
CO29 - 12 >100 kW CW/Pulsed weapon
CO210.59/11.17 4 kW÷5 kW
peak CW/Pulsed Long-range LIDAR

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(Yb3+), Thallium (Tm3+) or Praseodymium (Pr3+). The principal
scheme of a fibre laser is shown in Figure 1.
Fibre lasers have proven to have many benefits over traditional
SSLs. They are resistant and do not require a cleanroom to operate
or to be maintained, as most other laser systems do.
They are also extremely efficient; however, they cannot operate well
in all weather conditions. One example is the IPG CW fibre laser
that produces high-quality laser beams causing damage to materials
and components by thermal heating and burn-through. The
Naval Surface Warfare Centre, Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD)
purchased eight commercially available 5.5 kW IPG lasers, where
two multimode (seven fibres) lasers are housed per cabinet. This
type of laser is easy to mount due to the flexible fibres (Table 1).
Gas lasers
Gas lasers are also widespread in the industry. They use pure
gas or gaseous mixture for an acoustic environment in the optic
resonator. A typical gas laser contains a tube filled with the working
gas and there is a pair of mirrors at the edges of this tube. At one
end of the tube, the radiation leaves the resonator. Most gas lasers
use electric current to cause gas discharge in the active substance.
Helium-Neon (He-Ne) laser is a very well-known gas laser. It
produces a bright red, continuous beam of low power. It is used
for many applications, such as scanning, alignment, measurement,
and stabilization devices. University students use them in optical
training laboratories. Larger lasers contain He-Ne inside the beam
path, as well as checking beam alignment. He-Ne lasers are relatively
inexpensive and very user-friendly. They can work continuously for
thousands of hours.
CO2 lasers are also classified as gas lasers. These lasers were the
earliest truly high-power lasers and have been among the most
crucial lasers used in the research and development of high-energy
laser (HEL) weapons. In the industry, the more powerful CO2
lasers are used for welding, drilling, and cutting. Many CO2 lasers
vary in pumping design.
CO2 lasers work by burning hydrocarbon fuel (like kerosene or
methane) in oxygen or nitrous oxide. The hot gas flows through
a comb of nozzles, expands quickly, and achieves population
inversion. The gas then flows through an optical resonator at
supersonic speeds, resulting in stimulated emission and a laser
beam. CO2 lasers have been researched for use as non-lethal
weapons. The wavelength produced by a CO2 laser is also absorbed
by the glass. For example, the beam does not penetrate a windshield.
Thus, shooting a CO2 laser at a vehicle’s windshield could deter a
threat by damaging the windshield or by causing a dazzling effect
to reduce the visibility of the driver, while not reaching the driver
at all.
Laser characteristics
The output power of modern lasers ranges from mW to MW
(when delivering constant output power), or even petawatts (1015
W) for short-pulsed lasers, and the wavelengths emitting from the
ultraviolet waves (UVC) to the far-infrared (IRC) waves of the
electromagnetic spectrum (Table 1). In military terms, lasers with
continuous output powers greater than 20 kW are classified as
High Energy Lasers (HEL). Output powers in the range of kW or
even MW allow the creation of laser beams with potential harmful
intensity over distances of up to several hundred kilometres.
These beams can be used to heat targets, which then may lead to
structural failure of the target object. Besides, falling into the eyes
of the opposing army can lead to irreparable damage and blindness.
Advantages of laser weapons
Why are lasers so attractive for military purposes? The answer to
this question lies in the advantages they offer to conventional
weapons. The advantages of using laser weapons in military
operations, depending on the tasks to be solved (the objectives set)
and the tests that have been carried out, have shown the following:
• Very fast and can strike at targets with the speed of light
(300,000 km/s).
• Targeting without waiting (both in height and in the side
directions).
• Quick targeting opportunities, agile and in a short period
can intercept several targets or one single target multiple
times (compared, for example, with missiles or projectiles
already launched to reach the goal).
• Absence of the possibility to shoot down a striking beam (as
a projectile or a rocket) cannot be distracted by a heat trap,
is resistant to jamming systems (resistant to electromagnetic
interference), etc.
• Low price in comparison with some classical means of
destruction (exceptionally cost-effective when compared to
conventional ammunition, with each laser shot costing as
little as one US dollar).
• Ability to control the shot power that allows you to hit
different targets at different distances.
• High localisation of destruction, which makes it possible to
use such systems, for example, in urban conditions without
incidental losses.
• The relative silence of the shot and invisibility for the eyes
(for IR, UV ranges, especially pulsed lasers).
• Logistic support of the combat use of laser weapons
(especially based on solid-state lasers) is much simpler than
for several classical systems of defeat.
Laser technology is introduced in military affairs according to
specific guidelines that have been developed in the following areas:
Figure 1: Fibre laser – Principal schema [3].

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• Laser location (ground, air, underwater).
• Laser communication.
• Laser navigation systems.
• Laser weapons.
• Laser systems for missile defence and anti-satellite protection.
Due to the limitations of the volume of the report, we are discussing
only a few specific laser applications for military purposes (Figure
2).
APPLICATIONS AND DISCUSSION
According to their purpose, laser weapons can be classified as
strategic and tactical. Strategic or high-power laser weapon systems
are space or ground-based that intercepts enemy intercontinental
ballistic missiles and satellites. Tactical or low-power laser weapons
are generally used for short-range air defence or self-defence for
individual war fighter or weapon platforms (Figure 3).
Laser weapons are classified based on their energy/power levels:
high, medium, or low energy weapons (Figure 3). They are
distinguished into three broad areas ranging from jamming of
sensors to the destruction of optoelectronic devices and ultimately
destruction of the complete mechanical structure [3].
Low energy lasers: They usually give less than 1 kW of power
and are used in weapon simulation systems for training or for
jamming the sensors in communication systems or can be used in
anti-personal mode against the human eye. The use of these laser
weapons for future military tactical operations will radically change
the situation on the battlefield. These lasers are more silent and
less detectable by the enemy.
Medium energy lasers: They produce 10 kW to 100 kW of power
and are used for the destruction of optical or optoelectronic devices
on the ground or space-based targets.
High-Energy Lasers (HEL): They generate more than 100 kW of
power and is used for anti-aircraft or anti-missile systems. The main
components and modules from which one HEL is constructed are
shown in Figure 4. Having the speed of light, these lasers provide a
short engagement time for the target, depending on the terrain and
speed of the target (Figure 4).
Today many countries, such as the USA, Russia, China, India, and
Germany, are carrying out extensive research on HEL for navy or
air defence purposes [4-6]. High-energy lasers, due to high costs
and bulkier structure, will probably be limited to the protection of
costly high-technology targets such as air and navy bases, high-level
command posts and aircraft carriers.
As previously discussed, when capable of generating higher
power levels, ranging from kW to MW, any laser can be used
as a laser weapon. However, these lasers have special needs to
operate efficiently, i.e., cooling requirements, laser fuel storage
requirements, environment, and personal safety requirements,
pointing and tracking requirements. For these lasers, the cooling
requirement is essential to compensate for the enormous amount
of heat generated by generating the laser beam in the resonator.
If the cooling devices are not properly made, the heat will weaken
the power of the laser beam, which will affect the interaction of
laser radiation with the target substance. These weapons require
an adequate supply of fuel or electricity to allow the simultaneous
impact of multiple target commitments (Figure 5).
Laser weapons can be either ground-based or space-based as
depicted in Figure 5. Ground-based laser weapons utilize multiple
relay mirrors in space to destroy an intercontinental ballistic
missile. These relay mirrors are used to extend the range of high-
energy laser weapons, as it compensates for the limiting factors
caused due to atmospheric absorption, turbulence, and curvature
of the Earth. A high-energy laser beam from a ground station is
relayed to a missile with the help of these mirrors. Since the beam
must pass through the atmosphere to reach the constellation of
relay mirrors in space, the energy requirement of ground-based
lasers is substantially higher than space-based lasers, leading to
greater losses due to atmospheric transmission, thermal blooming,
and larger distances. The use of bifocal relay mirrors effectively
puts the laser source at the mirror. This increases the intensity on
the target at a specific range or extends the range of the laser while
retaining the original brightness or intensity. These lasers have
evolved during the strategic defence initiative (SDI) era but have
not received significant emphasis due to the variety of technical
challenges involved relating to its design and development [7].
The main types of lasers that are good candidates for laser weapons
Figure 2: Military laser communication: illustration of spatial diversity.
Figure 3: Classification of laser weapons based on energy/power levels.
Figure 4: Components of the HEL weapons system.

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include chemical laser, solid-state lasers, free-electron laser (FEL),
fibre laser, and liquid laser [8-10]. Each of these lasers has unique
characteristics that make it suitable for certain operational
applications.
Chemical lasers are the most mature laser weapon technology that
generates high power from exothermic chemical reactions to strong
laser IR radiation. Characteristics of some of the most popular
lasers, e.g., Hydrogen fluoride (HF) laser, deuterium fluoride (DF)
and chemical oxygenated iodine laser (COIL), have been described
earlier in this article (Table 1). Following the success of the first
1 kW HF laser in 1965, diverse military organisations have been
interested in producing more powerful lasers (> 100 kW) for
tactical missions. These lasers are somewhat bulky because they
require a large amount of chemical fuel and a good cooling of
the resonator for their proper functioning. Various high-energy
chemical laser weapons have been demonstrated over the past 45
years including MIRACL [11], ALPHA and Navy-ARPA chemical
laser (NACL). ALPHA HF laser is a small-sized MW power laser for
space applications. Tactical high-energy laser (THELDF chemical
laser), Mobile THEL (MTHEL-DF chemical laser) and advanced
tactical laser (ALT-COIL with beam control) are compact field-ready
weapons that have successfully demonstrated their capabilities
of shooting down short and medium-range targets. With some
modifications to THEL, a deployable ground-based directed energy
weapon, known as a high-energy laser for rockets, artillery, and
mortars (HELRAM), is used for short-range military threats.
Laser equipped aircraft like an airborne laser (ABL) [12] is equipped
with multiple laser systems: primary laser (COIL) with MW power
for target destruction, illuminating laser for ISR and high precision
laser for target tracking beam control systems. ABL can detect the
missiles shortly after the cloud break and provides a real-time
warning about its launch and location to the rest of the forces. It
also provides trajectory information and impact point predictions
shortly after burning out (Figure 6).
Solid-state lasers: fibre laser architecture for high power and long-
range directed energy weapon. This type of laser offers a very good
ratio of size, weight, and power (SWaP) and is therefore considered
a portable laser weapon. Boeing's HEL-MD is a 10-kW solid-state
fibre laser with around one-micron wavelength designed to destroy
rockets, artillery, mortars, and drones (RAMD) from ground-based
vehicles [13]. Fibre lasers are more compact and require less power
to maintain the beam quality than any other HEL design. Its beam
control system comprises mirrors, high-speed optical sensors,
processors, and adaptive optics system to precisely align the beam
onto the target in real-time. A single-mode fibre laser is capable of
producing 10 kW of power sufficient to shoot down any missile
at an approximated distance of 1.5 km. To further achieve the
required power levels, multiple fibre lasers can be combined so that
a high power overlapped beam, from an individual laser, strikes
the target. Figure 6 shows the incoherent combining of fibre lasers,
which is individually controlled by a beam steering mirror, to direct
each beam onto the target. Such fibre lasers are highly efficient,
robust, and compact and require low maintenance, which makes
them suitable for tactical energy-directed military applications.
The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) is a navy defence system that
has successfully demonstrated the shoot down of a UAV from a
HEL weapon deployed on a small ship. The system consists of an
array of solid-state lasers, generating IR beams at a varying output
power, in the range from 15 to 50 kW, to warn or damage the
designated target. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) will now
extend the experimentation by performing a shipboard test with a
150-kW laser weapon system, shortly [14] (Figure 7).
Chemical oxygen-iodine lasers (COIL) used in Airborne Laser
(ABL) to attack ICBM and Advanced Tactile Laser (ATL) to defeat
armoured vehicles.
What is the future trend for the development of laser
weapons?
Laser weapons are efficient and powerful countermeasure utilities
against any form of external threat, including ground-based or
Figure 5: Demonstration of ground-based and space-based laser weapon.
Figure 6: Simultaneous impact of 3 Fibre lasers on the target.
Figure 7: The long way we must go to create an ABL program progression.

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space-based military menaces. They offer several advantages over
conventional weapon systems. Since laser beams travel at the speed
of light, they provide near-real-time transfer of information to the
soldiers immediately after the target detection. The coherence of
laser beams provides highly focused energy which causes physical
destruction to the structures, by converting laser energy into
thermal energy.
Now-a-days, chemical lasers are replaced by solid-state laser systems
with semiconductor (diode) pumping. A huge advantage of
chemical lasers is the fact that the laser power does not require any
cumbersome and heavy power plant because the chemical reaction
is the source of energy. The main disadvantage of these systems is
environmental hazard and bulkiness of the structure.
Since these devices are constantly powered or reloaded by
chemical/electricity energy storage, they can engage multiple
targets with fewer moving mechanical parts. Lasers weapons
provide promising and cost-effective solutions for tactical missions,
unlike conventional ballistic missiles. The incremental cost per
shot for ballistic missiles is essentially the cost of the ammunition
expended, whereas, on the other hand, laser weapons expend only
energy. Hence, the cost per shot equals the cost of the chemical
fuel or the fuel required to generate the electricity, which is much
less as compared to conventional weapons. Besides, these directed
energy weapons provide exceptional striking accuracy, which results
in little collateral damage and allows the use of lasers for lethal
or non-lethal applications. Figure 8 demonstrates the applications
of laser weapons for ground, space and maritime environments
(Table 2).
To use laser beams as weapons, a significant amount of laser
Figure 8: Directed energy weapons for force protection and self-defence.
power is necessary. The required output power is determined and
strongly depends on the type and distance to the target. On the
other hand, researchers of the new laser weapon must adhere to
the international protocol on dazzling laser weapons that prohibits
the use of dazzlers to blind the enemy. This is a great paradox
because the minimum power that causes eye damage can be very
low. Dazzler lasers, for example, are designed to affect the human
eye temporarily or permanently [15]. Since the eye is a very sensitive
human organ, these weapons need only a small amount of output
power. Within a few meters, even an output power of several miles
may damage the eye because the eyes focus the beam on the retina.
Blinding lasers were used in the Falklands conflict and the war
between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s [16].
Blindness can also occur when working with powerful and
moderately powerful lasers at occasional reflections or deviations
of the laser beam. The laser effect on the eye in this case may be
multifaceted: besides the burning of the retina, the laser pulse can
also destroy the blood vessels in the eye or cause the process of slow
retinal decay and others [17,18] (Table 2 and Figure 9).
In 1995, these weapons were officially banned according to the
International Humanitarian Law. However, if the aim is to
destroy hard targets rather than to blind the enemy, the laser
requires an output power that is many orders of magnitude
higher than that of blinding lasers. As mentioned above in this
article, many countries and research institutes develop and test
lasers with continuous output power over 20 kW or impulse
energy over 1 kJ [19]. As stated above, the use of blinding laser
weapons is illegal under International Humanitarian Law. These
weapons violate the Fourth Protocol (1995) to the Convention on
Prohibitions, or Restriction on the Use of Certain Conventional

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Table 2: Effects of a laser beam on the eye (from UCELA Laser Safety Line 2009).
Wavelength Area of Damage Pathological Effect
180-315 nm (Ultraviolet UV-B, UVC) Cornea; Deep-ultraviolet light causes accumulating damage,
even at very low power
Photo keratitis; Inflammation of the Cornea, similar to
sunburn
315-400 nm
(Ultraviolet UV-A) Cornea and Lens Photochemical cataract; Clouding of the Lens
400-780 nm
(Visible) Retina; Visible light is focused on the Retina Photochemical damage; Damage to Retina and Retinal
burns
0.78-1.4 µm
(Near Infrared)
Retina; Near IR light is not absorbed by iris and focused on
the Retina Thermal damaged to cataract and Retinal burns
1.4-3.0 µm
(Infrared)
Cornea and Lens; IR Light is absorbed by transparent parts of
eye before reaching the Retina
Aqueous flare; Protein in aqueous humor, cataract,
Corneal burn
3000-10000 nm
(Far Infrared) Cornea Corneal burn
Figure 9: Schematic diagram of the eye, penetration, and possible damage to the eye from laser radiation of different wavelength, mesh defects due to
dazzler effects.
Weapons Which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or
to Have Indiscriminate Effects. This protocol outlaws the use and
transfer of laser weapons that are intended to cause blindness.
Additionally, the signatories are obliged to take the necessary steps
to prevent blindness caused by other laser weapon engagements
[20]. However, the protocol is not applicable if collateral blinding
occurs because of military laser applications that are otherwise
considered legitimate. Consequently, the protocol might apply
to High Energy Lasers (HEL) weapons only if they are specially
designed for blinding purposes. Nevertheless, the protocol seems
to have had some positive effects so far. The protocol is the first
step towards a comprehensive ban of all laser weapons. This
would be the first step towards preventive arms control, a concept
that was developed to ban the introduction of new destabilising
weapon systems [21]. Whether and to what extent a complete ban
is realistically achievable is another question.
CONCLUSION
Laser weapon systems have seen rapid development in recent years.
Dedicated R&D has advanced the state of the art considerably.
What was unimaginable only a few years ago, has become a reality
today. Accordingly, if appropriate research and development
strategies are applied, war fighters soon will have additional weapon
options to choose from for dealing with a spectrum of threats and
contingencies. In this paper, we have discussed various prospects of
laser technology for tactical military applications. Laser technology
addresses the need of today's battlefield that requires the ability
to detect the target at longer distances and exchange a massive
amount of information in a secure and timely manner. Lasers have
revolutionized warfare as accessories to high-energy weapons. This
technology serves as a powerful tool of war fighters when used as
battlefield illumination elements, rangefinders, target designators,
LIDARs, communication systems, power beamers or active remote
sensors. Because of the high frequency of the laser system, these
devices provide broadband capacity links with Swap benefit and
have a remarkable angular resolution, which is very crucial for
tactical laser device deployment. Besides higher bandwidth, the
laser device is used where anti-jam is required or RF spectrum is
not available. The use of laser, as a directed high-energy weapon,
requires a sufficient amount of power in MW to cause substantial
damage to a distant target. Even though laser weapons are used to
destroy targets, they can also cause damage to the user if handled
improperly. These weapons require sufficient cooling between
firing; therefore, they cause certain problems for ground vehicles,
especially for hand-held laser weapons. Also, during highly
turbulent weather conditions including heavy smoke, dust or
humidity, these weapons may be deflected from the actual path
and can miss the target. The military is still working on many
engineering problems, to compensate for the beam wander due
to bad weather conditions, movement of the target or motion
of the platform. Further, these HEL poses a significant threat to
sensors and military equipment on the battlefield. These sensors
may require a protection mechanism such as a laser jamming

8
Lazov L, et al.
OPEN ACCESS Freely available online
J Def Manag, Vol. 11 Iss. 4 No: 210
feature built into the sensor platform to ensure the reliability
and integrity of these devices in a hostile electromagnetic warfare
environment. Also, quantum computing and cryptography are
game-changing technologies in cyber warfare, possibly safeguarding
tactical communication against eavesdroppers. With all this on-
going development and current capacities, laser technologies will
dominate the battle space in future. When working with all the
new developments and applications of laser weapons, we must
stick to the global protocol on laser dazzling, which prohibits the
use of lasers specially designed for dazzling personnel but also by
accidental deviations of the radiation to the unintended directions,
thus creating a risk of damaging the health of unrelated people and
other objects.
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