In summary:
- Laser light is monochromatic, coherent and collimated — which is why little power can still be precise and powerful at long range.
- CW lasers illuminate, dazzle, communicate and (as a weapon) burn; pulsed lasers measure and mark — exactly the parallel of CW radar / pulse radar.
- The rangefinder provides the missing range for passive EO/IR sensors: R = c·Δt/2, accurate to the metre.
- The designator marks targets with coded pulses on which SAL weapons home; codes prevent confusion and deception.
- The price of all these benefits: line of sight and weather — and a target that can notice with a laser warning receiver that it is being illuminated.
With that, all sensor families have been covered: radar (active, all weather, range + velocity), IR/EO (passive, razor-sharp direction) and laser (active, exact range and marking). The next chapter brings them together into what it is all about: the fire control sequence.