Lase

To lase a target is to mark it with a laser beam so that a laser-guided weapon can home on the reflected laser energy and strike it. The word is military shorthand, a verb made from laser, and it names a specific and important action in guided-weapons attack: pointing an invisible laser designator at the target so that its beam illuminates the target, and a laser-guided bomb or missile, seeing the laser energy reflecting off the target, guides itself onto that spot. Someone lases the target, the weapon homes on the laser reflection, and the target is struck precisely, a method of precision attack that depends on that act of laser designation, the lasing, to mark where the weapon should go.

How lasing works and who does it

Laser designation works by pointing a laser at the target and keeping it there while the guided weapon homes on the reflected energy, a method that provides precision but requires the target to be continuously illuminated during the weapon's flight. The laser designator emits a coded beam of laser energy at the target, invisible to the eye but detectable by the seeker of a laser-guided weapon, and the energy reflects off the target, creating a spot of laser reflection that the weapon's seeker detects and homes on, guiding the weapon to the illuminated spot, so the target is marked by the laser and the weapon follows the mark. This requires the target to be lased continuously while the weapon is in flight, since the weapon homes on the laser reflection and needs the target illuminated to guide onto it, which means whoever is lasing must keep the laser on the target until the weapon strikes, a requirement that shapes how laser designation is used. The lasing can be done from various places: an aircraft can lase a target for its own or another aircraft's weapons, using a targeting pod that contains the laser designator, and this air-to-air designation is common, with one aircraft or the attacking aircraft itself marking the target; or a person on the ground can lase a target for aircraft to strike, the role of the forward air controllers and special operators who use handheld or portable laser designators to mark targets for air-delivered laser-guided weapons, directing precision strikes onto targets they designate from the ground. This ground designation is significant, since it lets troops on the ground precisely direct air-delivered firepower onto targets they can see and mark, a powerful capability for close support and precision strike, with the person on the ground lasing the target and the aircraft's weapon homing on the mark, combining the ground observer's knowledge of the target with the aircraft's firepower through the act of laser designation.

Laser guidance, and thus lasing, provides precision but has a significant limitation: it depends on the laser reaching the target and reflecting back, which weather and obscurants can defeat. The laser beam must travel from the designator to the target and the reflection must travel back to the weapon's seeker, so anything that blocks or scatters the laser, clouds, fog, smoke, dust, heavy rain, can degrade or defeat the laser guidance, preventing the weapon from seeing the laser reflection it needs to home on. This weather vulnerability is the main limitation of laser guidance compared to GPS guidance, which does not need to see the target and works in all weather, so laser-guided weapons, for all their precision, can be defeated by bad weather or battlefield obscurants that block the laser, a limitation that led to the development and preference for GPS guidance in weapons like JDAM that work in all weather. Despite this limitation, laser guidance and lasing remain important, because laser guidance offers advantages that GPS guidance lacks, particularly the ability to hit moving targets, since a laser can be kept on a moving target to guide a weapon onto it, which GPS guidance to fixed coordinates cannot do, and the ability to designate a specific point precisely, marking exactly where the weapon should strike. So lasing remains a valuable method of precision attack, used where its advantages, hitting moving targets and precise point designation, matter and where the weather allows the laser to work, complementing GPS guidance that works in all weather but against fixed targets, and the act of lasing, marking a target with a laser for a guided weapon to home on, remains an important technique in precision warfare, employed by aircraft and ground observers to direct laser-guided weapons precisely onto the targets they designate.

Lasing in modern precision warfare

Lasing remains a significant part of precision warfare, valued for the capabilities it provides even as GPS guidance has become widespread, and the two methods complement each other in the modern precision arsenal. The advantages of laser guidance, the ability to strike moving targets and to designate a precise point, keep lasing important for the situations where these matter, so laser-guided weapons and the designation they require remain in wide use alongside the GPS-guided weapons that dominate attacks on fixed targets, each method used where it is best suited. Modern targeting pods and designators have grown more capable, with better optics, sensors, and laser systems that make designation more effective and let aircraft find, identify, and lase targets with greater capability, and the integration of laser designation with the other sensors and systems of modern aircraft and ground observers has made the act of lasing part of a sophisticated targeting process rather than a standalone action. The role of ground observers who lase targets for aircraft remains important, since it combines the ground observer's close knowledge of the target with the aircraft's firepower, a valuable capability for precision strike and close support that the act of laser designation enables, letting troops on the ground direct precise air-delivered firepower onto targets they mark. So lasing continues as an important technique in precision warfare, providing capabilities, hitting moving targets and precise designation, that complement GPS guidance, employed by increasingly capable aircraft and ground observers to direct laser-guided weapons precisely, and remaining a significant method of achieving the precision that modern warfare demands, the act of marking a target with a laser so that a guided weapon can strike it exactly, a technique that endures for the distinct capabilities it provides in the precision attack of targets, especially the moving targets that laser designation can track and the precise points that it can mark, keeping lasing a valuable and continuing part of how precision firepower is directed onto its targets.

Why use laser guidance if GPS guidance works in all weather?

Because laser guidance can do things GPS guidance cannot, particularly striking moving targets and designating a precise point, so laser guidance is used where these capabilities matter despite its weather vulnerability. GPS guidance directs a weapon to fixed coordinates, which works in all weather and is ideal for striking targets whose location is known and fixed, but it cannot guide a weapon onto a moving target, since the target moves away from the coordinates, whereas laser guidance can, because the laser can be kept on the moving target to guide the weapon onto it wherever it goes, making laser guidance the method for hitting moving targets that GPS cannot track. Laser guidance also allows precise point designation, marking exactly where the weapon should strike, which is valuable when the precise aim point matters, whereas GPS guides to coordinates that may be less precise about the exact spot, so laser designation offers a precision of aim point that complements GPS. These advantages, striking moving targets and precise designation, are why laser guidance remains in use despite its main limitation, the weather vulnerability that GPS guidance avoids, since for moving targets and precise point attack, laser guidance provides capabilities GPS lacks, and the two methods are used together, GPS for fixed targets in all weather and laser for moving targets and precise designation where the weather allows. The choice between them depends on the target and the conditions, GPS guidance chosen for fixed targets and all-weather reliability, laser guidance chosen for moving targets and precise designation when the laser can work, and many situations use both or weapons that combine them, so laser guidance is not made obsolete by GPS but retained for the distinct capabilities it provides, the ability to hit moving targets and to designate precise points that GPS guidance cannot match, which is why lasing remains an important technique in precision warfare alongside the GPS guidance that dominates attacks on fixed targets, each method valued for what it does best in the overall effort to strike targets precisely.