Abstract: This paper is the first in a series on laser technology. The focus is primarily the ground-based air defence (GBAD) scenario but is applicable to other ground, air and maritime environments. The purpose of the series of three papers is to investigate a viable technique which may be used for the identification of ground-based air defence targets. Part 1 introduces and describes areas of laser technology that are common-place on the modern battlefield. It also introduces some more recent developments and their applications which are discussed in greater detail in the subsequent parts. Part 2 then discusses laser safety, factors affecting laser performance and LADAR. The calculations in Part 2 demonstrate LADARs potential as a long-range (>10 km), 24-hour, all-weather imaging capability. Part 3 examines burst illumination laser (BIL), which is the chosen technique for the GBAD target-identification problem. A method of calculating BIL performance is shown and the results from the authors' calculation tool are presented.