Laser Weapon Systems- Science Fiction Materializing

Abstract

Laser technology has advanced rapidly from the invention of the laser in the 1960’s to the Mega-Watt lasers of the late 1980’s.  Alongside the rapid technology development comes an expectation for laser weapon systems which have long been a part of science fiction literature. Nevertheless, the latter have yet to be fielded, coining the popular joke that high power laser weapons have been three years away from us, for three decades.  Over the last few years, the technology has matured and the operational need for this innovative and game-changing defense system has increased making their entrance to the battlefield imminent.

This Seminar describes how these systems work and focuses on the technological breakthroughs that finally allows their realization- fiber laser power scaling via beam combining, beam focusing and pointing and real-time atmospheric turbulence disturbance correction.

Yehonathan Segev has been the head of the R&D group that specializes in Laser Systems in Rafael Advanced Defense Systems LTD since 2020. He is with the group in Rafael since 2011, after receiving a PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

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