A timely survey of current and proposed laser system technology for warfare

With the rapidly changing nature of conflict today, laser system development has benefited from a new focus and urgency. Because laser beams can project energy over kilometers in microseconds—fast enough to eliminate most countermeasure responses—laser technology seems ideal for defense against modern weapons. Military Laser Technology for Defense: Technology for Revolutionizing 21st Century Warfare highlights recent advances in high-power lasers and impressive airborne demonstrations of laser weapons that show the enormous potential of laser technology to revolutionize twenty-first-century warfare.

Including only unclassified or declassified information, the book focuses on military applications that involve propagation of laser beams through the atmosphere. Chapters cover:

• Optical technology, including optical beams, interferometers, diffraction and propagation of laser light in the atmosphere
• Laser technology including efficient ultra-high power lasers, such as the free-electron laser, that will have a major impact on future warfare
• How laser technology can effectively mitigate six of the most pressing military threats of the twenty-first century including missiles, future nuclear weapons, directed beam weapons, chemical and biological attack, and terrorists, as well as imaging challenges in bad weather

Understanding these threats and their associated laser protection systems is critical for allocating resources because a balance is required between maintaining a strong economy, an effective infrastructure, and a capable military defense. Military Laser Technology for Defense will provide scientists, engineers, military planners, academic researchers and students with a comprehensive reference for the design and development of new laser systems and for strategic planning.