PACIFICA, CA-Shortly after the Wassenaar Plenary meets in Vienna, Austria, in December to formally approve recently negotiated regulations for controlling laser exports, the 40 nations who are party to the Wassenaar Arrangement will set about integrating the new regulations into the national legislative codes that regulate export activities of laser manufacturers.

The export of “dual use” items (with both military and civilian applications) such as lasers is controlled by the Wassenaar Arrangement, which replaces the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (CoCom) established during the Cold War. Previous Wassenaar controls were based on the laser technology involved in generating laser light, but the new controls are based on the parameters of the laser beam itself, according to Breck Hitz, executive director of the Laser and Electro-Optics Manufacturers’ Association (LEOMA; Pacifica, CA). The new controls also remove ambiguities and outdated regulations involving fiber lasers, nonlinear optics, and heavy industrial lasers.

Fiber lasers were not even mentioned in previous control regulations, yet their potential for providing a laser weapon that could be transported on a soldier’s back presents an issue of significant concern. In the recently concluded negotiations, conflict arose over whether or not solid-state laser controls should apply to fiber lasers. Initially some country representatives said yes and others said no. Without a standard to resolve such ambiguity, manufacturers attempting to export from countries that interpreted the regulations strictly would be placed at a competitive disadvantage.

The delegates ultimately decided to place fiber lasers in a category based on wall plug or electrical efficiency. Characterization based on output as opposed to technology not only avoided the need to decide whether or not fiber lasers are solid state, it also provides a category for emerging technologies, such as disc lasers, that might also be developed into weaponry that could be carried by a foot soldier.

While numerous other categories, such as nonlinear optics, industrial lasers, neodymium lasers, Q-switched lasers and pulse-excited lasers were clarified or switched to more functional definitions, fiber lasers required the lengthiest negotiations, said Hitz, who launched the current revision process back in 2001 and has represented the U.S. laser industry at the Wassenaar negotiations during the past three years.

Resolving technical issues became particularly difficult at times, Hitz said, because technical representatives from each country often could not speak directly to each other, but had to communicate indirectly through the non-technical diplomatic envoys who actually attended the negotiations.

-Hassaun A. Jones-Bey

Sat Nov 11 00:00:00 CST 2006