Optical technology is more important for military and aerospace applications today than ever before. No one I know of disputes that. Gathering, processing, and disseminating information using light instead of electricity offers a quantum leap in speed, efficiency, radiation hardness, and other benefits.
Perhaps the area where optical technology stands to benefit not only military and aerospace applications, but commercial applications as well, involves the blending of optical and electronic technologies in sensors, communications systems, computers, and other crucial areas. This blending of optical and electronic technologies gives us the term optoelectronics, which is the subject of this supplement to Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine.
Optoelectronics yields such important military and aerospace applications as laser radar, optical sonar systems, infrared sensors and other night-vision equipment, weapons-grade laser systems, virtually undetectable communications systems, and the list goes on.
For the purposes of this supplement, and of Military & Aerospace Electronics coverage of optoelectronic technology as we move forward, we segment the military and aerospace optoelectronics market into three areas: lasers and other light emitters, optoelectronic sensors, and optoelectronic components such as optical fiber, optical connectors, and optical amplifiers. The extensive new products section of this special supplement reflects this organization.
How large is the military and aerospace optoelectronics market? The brute fact is we’re not sure. Military & Aerospace Electronics has tried to locate reliable market information from optoelectronics companies, as well as from organizations such as the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Government Electronics and Information Technology Association (GEIA), all to no avail.
No one seems to have solid information on this market, but lots of people are looking for it. The closest we can come up with - and this is not solid information at all - is the projected size of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) budget that is dedicated to information technology.
The GEIA pegs DOD information technology budget for procurement and research at $69.4 billion next year, and growing by 15 percent over the next decade to $82 billion in 2015. We can assume that optoelectronics is a good portion of that amount, but we don’t know how much. Over the next year it is one of our most pressing agenda items to find out.
Stay tuned.
John Keller
Editor-in-Chief
