Continued Optical Sensor Operations

The United States and other nations are developing laser (i.e., "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation") applications, including high-energy lasers (HEL) and low-energy lasers (LEL). While HELs will likely have military applications in ballistic missile defense (BMD), counter-air, counter-space, and counter-intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); HEL applications will be slow to proliferate to many potential adversaries due to high cost and technical complexity. However, LELs will be developed as technological byproducts of HELs and commercial applications, and will rapidly proliferate, even to resource-constrained actors, due to low cost and reduced technical complexity.