EW Academy · Contents · Chapter 7 · Nederlandse versie
Chapter 7: Laser and military applications
What makes laser special (coherent, monochromatic, collimated), CW and pulsed applications, and the two workhorses: the rangefinder and the designator.
7.1Introduction
In Military applications within the EMS and Infrared we kept running into the same gap: passive EO/IR sensors see razor-sharp where something is, but not how far away . The laser closes that gap — and does much more along the way: marking…
Read §7.1 →7.2What is a laser?
Ordinary light — from the sun, a lamp, a hot exhaust — is chaos: all colours (wavelengths) mixed together, waves in random phase, radiated in all directions. A laser produces the opposite: light of one wavelength , whose waves all march…
Read §7.2 →7.3Continuous wave and pulsed applications
Just like radar ( Pulse radar vs Continuous wave radar ), a laser can operate continuously or in pulses, and that choice determines the application:
Read §7.3 →7.4Laser rangefinder and laser designator
A rangefinder sends one laser flash to the target and measures how long the light takes to come back: that gives the distance. A designator shines a coded laser spot on the target; a bomb or missile with a laser seeker steers towards that…
Read §7.4 →