Targeting and Ranging Lasers

MIL-Spec Lasers

What are Targeting and Ranging Lasers?

Targeting and ranging lasers play a crucial role in the defense and aerospace markets, supporting various applications. These lasers are utilized for precise target acquisition, tracking, and ranging purposes. They assist in guiding munitions, providing accurate coordinates for fire control systems, and aiding in the identification of targets. Targeting and ranging lasers are commonly used in military operations, including ground-based artillery, naval systems, and aircraft platforms. They enable accurate distance measurement, facilitating effective engagement and ensuring mission success. Additionally, these lasers find utility in aerial surveillance, remote sensing, and aerospace research, providing valuable data for monitoring, mapping, and scientific analysis. The precise and reliable performance of these lasers contributes to enhancing operational effectiveness and reducing collateral damage in defense and aerospace applications.

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Targeting and Ranging Applications

Range Finding Lasers: Range finding lasers are the laser source that drives a range finding system. These lasers are designed, manufactured, and tested to be resistant to harsh environments, with a wide operating temperature range, shock and vibration hardened, and low SWaP (size, weight, and power) characteristics, enabling lightweight, handheld, portable range finding devices. This application requires pulsed output and typically utilizes 1.5µm IR wavelengths.

Target Designator Lasers: Laser designation lasers require relatively high pulse energy, a programmable pulse repetition rate, low beam divergence, and high pointing accuracy.  Laser target designation must be deployable in a wide variety of inhospitable environments; therefore, in addition to the optical considerations, it is required that they are compact, rugged, and have relatively low power consumption.

Recommended Laser Series

We recommend the following laser series options for Targeting & Ranging applications. There can often be a ton of options and many variables. Contact us today for help finding the perfect laser for your specific application!

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Airtrac-MIL Series

AIRTRAC-LD

The AIRTRAC-MIL series is a ruggedized, high-shock, ultra-compact, actively q-switched, low-SWaP, DPSS laser, available with >90 mJ of pulse energy. Fully compliant NATO STANAG 3733 configurations for laser designation are available in a complete system weighing less than 1 lb. The athermal design of the AIRTRAC ensures high laser pulse energy, stable performance over the full temperature range with low beam divergence. 

Kaukas Series

The Kaukas series is a compact, low-SWaP line of 1.54µm “eye-safe” Er:glass lasers. These nanosecond pulsed lasers feature a compact design that makes them suitable for integration into handheld, portable devices. The lasers deliver high pulse energy, repetition rates up to 5Hz, energy stability of less than 2%, and a high-quality TEM00 beam. With configurable and customizable options, these features make the Kaukas series a versatile choice for various applications such as LIDAR & laser ranging, LIBS, metrology, and instrumentation.