Early Military Lasers

[Eidetic]

I recently added these two magazines to the collection, both from 1963. They both have the earliest pictures of military lasers I've found. The first is Mechanix Illustrated from September. The cover shows the Hughes Aircraft "Colidar Mark II", a ruby laser based range finder "rifle". Its two barrels hold collimation optics for both the output of the ruby laser and the detector for a returned signal.

Mechanix Illustrated 63.jpg

The second is this April copy of Army Information Digest. It includes three great pics. There's a pic of a ruby crystal growing apparatus, and these two. On the left is the Spectra-Physics model 110 He-Ne head with its front cover removed. This was the first commercial laser with a continuous visible beam. The pic on the right shows another army range finder, perhaps the one mentioned in the article that was developed at the U.S. Army Electronics Research and Development Laboratory at Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey. Anyway, it's the earliest pic of a military laser I've found. Hughes had a few months head start on deciding what to do with the laser Ted Maiman built. They went right to the range finder, then to target designation for guided missiles and bombs.

Army Digest.jpgArmy Digest Pics.jpg

[mixedgas]

You realize USAF funded early Argon Ion development for years right? The same fundamental piece of work developed Disk, Quartz, BeO and Graphite bore tubes.

Steve

[Eidetic]

Yes Steve, I think all branches of the military jumped in right at the beginning. Here's a press wirephoto showing the ruby laser rifle made by Maser Optics for the Frankford Arsenal, from 1964. I think this is the first real laser "ray gun".
Maser Optics Rifle.jpgFrankford Arsenal Sign.jpg

[Ed Wesly]

Where are you finding all this cool stuff? Pretty amazing archaeology!

[Eidetic]

Ebay, Ed.

And since I'm on a roll with laser guns, here's the earliest reference to handheld, battery powered pulsed ruby pointer made to aim directly at helicopters! The page below is from Laser Focus of October, 1967.

Laser gun LF10:67.jpg