Laser

How The Once Elusive Dream Of Laser Weapons Suddenly Became A Reality

A weaponry is about to become a reality. So, what changed that made what had been bulky systems go from clumsy pipe dreams to hardened, miniaturized, and reliable weapons that will be able to be deployed even in the harshest of conditions?

We recently had an in-depth interview with Dr. Rob Afzal, Lockheed Martin Senior Fellow, Laser and Sensor Systems, where I pressed him on everything related to laser weaponry and the emerging military applications that go along with it. In the course of answering my maelstrom of queries, Dr. Afzal eloquently conveyed how we have suddenly arrived in an era where laser weapons will become widespread across the battlefield. In this first piece in our two-part series with Lockheed's directed energy guru, I wanted to share his explanation with you, as it is fascinating in its own right.

Here, as it was conveyed to me directly, is what technological developments have made the dawn of laser warfare possible according to Dr. Afzal:

"If you think back, that the laser is actually invented in roughly 1960. So, it begs the question, that's 50 years—why aren't there laser weapons all over the place today? There are really two reasons for that.

The first reason is that the initial application they envisioned for the laser weapons is for strategic defense mission; really, the hardest—most difficult technologically—mission that there is, defending the homeland against incoming ballistic missiles. So, first of all, that was extraordinarily difficult, but it did develop a lot of core fundamental technologies and demonstrations that showed that a laser weapon system can be put together, you can do acquisition, tracking, pointing a laser beam, as well as delivering a lethal laser beam to a target, like a boost-phase ballistic missile on the Airborne Laser program.