A January 17, 1983 memo to British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, declassified after 30 years under British law, casts interesting light on the state of laser weapons just two months before President Ronald Reagan announced his Strategic Defense Initiative, which included plans for orbiting laser battle stations. The memo confirms long-circulating rumors that the UK deployed a laser weapon during the 1982 Falklands war, but says the laser was a modest-power version designed "to dazzle low-flying Argentine pilots attacking ships," and was never fired.
The memo from Defense Minister Michael Heseltine says Britain started laser weapon research in the early 1960s, and was exchanging information with the U.S. since 1972. British studies of laser damage and propagation effects began in 1974, and by the end of 1979 the Ministry of Defense had shifted away from high-energy laser weapons to focus on "medium-power lasers directed against relatively softer targets such as eyes, optics, and electro-optic sensors."
Worried about the Soviet Union's capabilities, Heseltine wrote "the Russians may already have deployed a laser weapon on the carrier Kirov." Since 1980, the British laser program had focused on both laser offense and defense. On one hand, they studied vulnerability, hardening and protection of sensors, optical systems, and soldiers' eyes against enemy lasers. On the other, they studied prospects for developing their own laser weapons, although noting "the major [offensive] effort is being undertaken in the United States." Heseltine doubted that lasers could replace other weapons because they require good weather and a line of sight to the target, but he told Thatcher that a study of the potential of laser weapons would start in 1984.
The memo says the UK had "no specific programme" to build laser weapons, implying the laser sent to the Falklands was a last-minute project to protect ships from air attack. The fact it was designed to "dazzle" enemy pilots suggests its output was modest. In the event, deployment of the laser was kept secret, and it was never used in combat.
The British dazzler was ahead of its time; the frequency-doubled diode-pumped neodymium lasers recently deployed as dazzlers at U.S. checkpoints in the Middle East were then in their infancy. They took nearly 30 years to reach the battlefield. The U.S. Navy had already demonstrated the megawatt-class Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser (MIRACL) built by the Navy, but but that massive system could fire for only seconds at a time, and plans for high-energy laser weapons have been scaled down to 100-kW-class, ground-based lasers to block rocket, artillery, and mortar attacks.
Jeff Hecht | Contributing Editor
Jeff Hecht is a regular contributing editor to Laser Focus World and has been covering the laser industry for 35 years. A prolific book author, Jeff's published works include “Understanding Fiber Optics,” “Understanding Lasers,” “The Laser Guidebook,” and “Beam Weapons: The Next Arms Race.” He also has written books on the histories of lasers and fiber optics, including “City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics,” and “Beam: The Race to Make the Laser.” Find out more at jeffhecht.com.