Lasers in Defence: An Overview of Contemporary Status and Emerging Trends

Abstract

Lasers have influenced every conceivable area of application in the last couple of decades. During this period, there has been an explosive growth in commercial, industrial, medical, scientific, technological and above all military usage of laser devices and systems. While the expansion of non-military application spectrum of lasers is primarily driven by emergence of a large number of laser wavelengths followed by ever increasing power levels and reducing price tags at which those wavelengths could be generated, the military applications of lasers and related electro-optic devices have grown mainly because of technological maturity of the lasers that were born in the late 60's and the early 70's. Technological advances in optics, optoelectronics and electronics leading to more rugged, reliable, compact and efficient laser devices are largely responsible for making them indispensable in modern warfare. In this paper, we present an overview of the emergence of lasers for Defence applications, their current status worldwide and the role they are almost set to play in the twenty first century battlefield. Also is included a brief on the developmental activity in the field of laser devices at Laser Science and Technology Center, Delhi.

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Notes on contributors

A K Maini

AK Maini took his BSc (Engg) degree in Electronics and Communication from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh in 1977. He has been with DRDO since 1978. He has more than two decades of experience in different aspects of electronics design and practice. He has also given new design methodologies for building Electronics packages for solid-state lasers and frequency stabilizers for gas lasers (PATENTS Pending). Presently he is the Head of Laser Electronics and EOCM Division at LASTEC, Delhi. He has more than 200 technical articles and papers to his credit. He has authored more than 10 books including Electronics and Communication Simplified, Handbook of Electronics, Microwaves and Radar, Electronics for Competitions, Electronics Projects for Beginners, Facing the Interview Board and Digital Electronics. He is the Fellow IETE and Member of Indian Laser Association (ILA).

K S Jindal

KS Jindal took his BSc (Engg) and MSc (Engg) degrees with distinction from Punjab university in 1966 and 1968 respectively. He was lecturer with Punjab University for a brief period before joining DRDO at Defence Science Laboratory (now Laser Science & Technology Centre) in 1969. He took over as Director LASTEC on 1st August 2002.

He was responsible for the development of process and plant for indigenous production of G-Fuel (Liquid Propellant for Missiles) and for transfer of technology to High Explosive Factory Kirkee, Pune. This major contribution in making the country self-reliant in the field of liquid Propellant for Missiles was duly recognized and he was honored with DRDO Cash Award.

He has led many other project activities in the field of high power lasers, cryogenic cooling systems and heat exchanger systems for various types of military lasers. He is the Fellow of Institution of Engineers (India)