DSEI UK 2025: First Look at LASERD MAX and ECHO

Sentinel Photonics will be launching two new products at DSEI UK 2025: The LASERD MAX, a laser intelligence (LasINT) system that provides real-time insights into laser threats, and ECHO, a handheld retro-reflection device. 

“Laser threats are evolving fast, creating serious multi-domain risks that traditional defences can’t keep up with,” Jackson White, the company’s Head of Commercial explains In an August 27 press release. “Our new products are built to detect those threats early and help save lives,” he added. 

But what, exactly, are we talking about here? Well, there are a few different angles and threats within the world of lasers and for a lot more depth check out this recent interview with Sean Tipper, the CTO of Sentinel Photonics. As for LASERD MAX and ECHO, we will focus on snipers and the roles that they can play on a battlefield. 

In early 2010, US Marines were preparing to move into Marja, a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan. They were engaged by groups of well-trained snipers. The marksmen would work in teams with regular fighters, whose assault rifle fire would help conceal the position of the snipers. In one engagement, the Marines were receiving fire “from an enemy sniper, firing from a well-concealed position only 75 yards away. As we attempted to find a muzzle flash we would immediately be distracted by the semiaccurate AK fire,” Cpl. Thomas Gibbons-Neff, recounted in a New York Times article. Four of the corporal’s team were shot by that sniper before he relocated. 

Eventually, Corporal Gibbons-Neff and his team used one fire team as bait to draw the sniper’s fire, and another to calculate where he was hiding. An MQ-9 Reaper finished the engagement with a Hellfire missile. This vignette helps to illustrate the disproportionate effect that snipers can have on even a well-trained formation.

ECHO, on display at DSEI UK 2025

A lone shooter who is a competent marksman and knows about camouflage and concealment can cause many casualties. So, finding them is often a priority task, which is where retroreflection detectors come in. Sentinel Photonics will be presenting ECHO at DSEI UK 2025. It is a handheld retroreflective device “that exposes concealed, hostile optics, specifically magnified optics of any kind,” the press release states. It can detect optics out to a range of 3 km and operates in the visual, near infrared, and short-wave infrared bands. 

It has a low visibility to night vision goggles and low-light cameras. It can allow “operators to identify concealed optics without compromising their own position, giving them the edge in surveillance, counter-surveillance, VIP protection, sniper scope detection, and border operations,” the press release adds. 

The way it works is by pulsing a low energy laser over an area. If there is a magnified optic within the observed terrain, the laser will go down the focal plane of the optic and back using exactly the same path. This is retroreflection, it is the same phenomenon used in cats eyes that are used on roads. The observer using ECHO would see the reflection and know that there is an optic in the area.

So, in the case above, a retroreflection device like ECHO might have helped the marines to find the sniper on the first day and engage him with their own small arms. They are very effective systems, and will rapidly reveal a sniper’s position without giving away the spotter’s. Similar devices were used in Ukraine from around 2015, however, the Russians would fire a high energy laser at Ukrainian optics, leaving many snipers and observers with horrific eye injuries. And that is where the company’s other new product, LASERD MAX comes in. 

LASERD MAX, LasINT for the frontlines

Laser signal and event recording devices (LASERD) MAX is a laser intelligence (LasINT) system that gives operators real-time situational awareness of unknown laser threats. It is designed to be used by teams of snipers and others on the battlefield to give them a warning if they are being illuminated or targeted with a laser, allowing them to take cover. 

“LASERD MAX delivers persistent, autonomous laser detection up to 10km across the visible and non-visible laser spectrum. It enables users to passively map, log, and analyse laser activity in real time, even in complex or contested EW environments,” the press release explains. This includes parallel detection of military and commercial lasers. The latter is particularly noteworthy as commercial LiDAR is increasingly used for navigation and even for the fuzing of the Lancet loitering munition used by Russia. 

The system also “builds a bespoke laser threat library to inform strategic and tactical responses and integrates seamlessly with C4ISR ecosystems.” This means it could be integrated into the Android Tactical Awareness Kit, for instance, which is used by many armed forces for dismounted situational awareness. Several LASERD MAX systems could be networked across the battlefield, providing an even richer LasINT picture.

If you are planning to attend DSEI UK 2025 and are involved in dismounted combat, then head to the Sentinel Photonics stand, N5-260, to meet the team and learn more. 

Calibre comment

While this article has focused on the role of snipers and the threats to them, it is worthwhile labouring the impact that laser-guided weapons can have on a battlefield. Russia’s Krasnopol laser guided artillery round is an example that I often use to illustrate this. In Ukraine, guns and personnel are very dispersed, which makes them a poor target for unguided artillery rounds. The Krasnopol kit can put a 152 mm round within a few metres of a position, however, and even hit moving vehicles at low speeds. It requires a drone or observer team to illuminate the target with laser energy constantly until the round strikes. They are unlikely to know this is happening unless they have some form of laser warning receiver like the LASERD MAX. Russia has now built precision into its long-range fires capabilities, which means LasINT and general situational awareness of the use of lasers should be a priority for NATO armed forces. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on August 29, 2025. Credit for the lead image is Sentinel Photonics.