Application of Fiber Laser in Laser Weapons

Application of Fiber Laser in Laser Weapons
Since the invention of the first laser in 1960, the United States has been exploring laser weapons. From the initial plan to develop space-based laser weapons to strike ground targets from space, to later developing airborne high-energy laser weapons to defend and assist ballistic missiles, and to later developing tactical laser weapons to strike targets such as drones and cruise missiles. After decades of development, tremendous human and financial resources have been invested, and remarkable achievements have been made.
Laser weapons have the advantages of light speed strike, resistance to electromagnetic interference, high cost-effectiveness, flexibility and precision, and have enormous potential for military applications. Especially with the widespread use of unmanned combat units such as drones in modern warfare, the development of laser weapons with extremely high combat effectiveness and cost-effectiveness has been further promoted. In the Russo Ukrainian War and the US Iran conflict, there have been a large number of low-cost drone attacks. For drones with a cost of around $20000, intercepting them using traditional air defense methods would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in air defense missiles (such as the Stinger missile, which costs $300000). This not only consumes a huge amount but also makes it difficult to achieve satisfactory strike results. Using laser weapons to strike low speed and small unmanned aerial vehicle targets only costs a few dollars, and can quickly strike multiple targets, achieving good strike effects.
As the main component of laser weapons, lasers have gone through stages such as gas lasers, chemical lasers, solid-state lasers, and free electron lasers. Here is a brief introduction to the application of fiber lasers in solid-state lasers for laser weapons. Fiber lasers have become the main light source for tactical laser weapons due to their advantages of light weight, flexible structure, good beam quality, and high photoelectric conversion efficiency. Fiber lasers can also achieve high-power laser output through techniques such as spectral synthesis, effectively performing soft/hard damage to targets. Introduce two laser weapon systems used by the US Army, both of which use fiber lasers as light sources.