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The Defense Intelligence Agency produced this reference document, dated 31 March 2010, under its Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It reviews the state of the art and likely evolution of high-energy laser weapons, including chemical, solid-state, fiber and free-electron lasers, as well as beam control and the history of DoD laser research. It concludes that electrically powered lasers could make megawatt-class weapons practical and that spacecraft laser weapons are conceivable within 20 years. It also recommends ways to protect spacecraft from laser damage.
“The Advance”10 pages
UNCLASSIFIED//FIHl 8FFHil.t.k Wfili IH.k\f \ □ -Total Extinction -Total Scattering Total Absorption RI Figure 12. Typical Atmospheric Absorption and Scattering in the Infrared Brief History of DoD Laser Weapon Research The Department of Defense began funding research in high energy lasers soon after the invention of the laser in 1960 when it was thought that they might (if scalable to high power) have tremendous impact on how wars were fought. The Advanced Research Projects Agency led the way with studies on the use of lasers for strategic applications, such as anti-satellite and anti-ICBM, while each of the services began looking at more modest tactical applications and began building one-of-a-kind demonstrators. By the mid-1970's, the Army had placed a SO kW carbon-dioxide (CO2) laser with a 40 cm beam director in a tracked vehicle called the Mobile Tactical Unit (MTU) and had shot down small drone aircraft. The Air Force placed a larger CO2 laser in a KC-135 (the Airborne Laser Laboratory or ALL) and, by the early 1980's, had used it to shoot down air-to-air missiles such as the AIM-9. See Figures 13 and 14. 16 UNCLASSIFIED// I OK 01 I 1e1111t tt:!i!! 8HLY
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 31 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.