Airmen at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, are helping solve a growing problem among American pilots and aircrews worldwide.
The Federal Aviation Administration says laser strikes on aircraft have increased by almost 48% since 2020, with more than 10,000 incidents reported in 2025 alone.
Pointing a laser at an aircraft became a federal crime in 2012 and can result in up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Violators can also face FAA fines in addition to local and state criminal penalties.
“These strikes can cause serious and, in some cases, permanent eye damage, with health concerns ranging from temporary flash blindness to severe retinal injuries,” said Air Force Master Sgt. Bridgette Brzezinski, a bioenvironmental engineering flight chief assigned to the 78th Operational Medical Readiness Squadron. “Laser exposures can severely disrupt critical phases of flight, such as takeoff and landing, and can have significant psychological effects on aircrew even at distances where ocular damage is unlikely.”
To combat this threat, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Human Systems Division is pioneering the next generation of protective technology.
The AFLCMC/ROU, based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is working with its operations and support team at Robins Air Force Base on the Aircrew Laser Eye Protection – Technology Insertion program. This evolutionary acquisition program replaces and upgrades laser protection eyewear every five to seven years.
Kevin Frost, AFLCMC/ROU operation and support mechanical engineer, and Eric Miltner, AFLCMC/ROU operations and support equipment specialist, are providing vital sustainment considerations to help develop improved eyewear that reduce the dangerous impacts of laser attacks on aircrews.
They are now working to field a new family of products, the Block 3. It consists of six modular devices, each worn under specific conditions during takeoffs and landings. The kit includes separate day, night and ballistics spectacles, and visors that provide peripheral protection while wearing night vision goggles.
Frost and Miltner say the latest changes include a new dye that can filter a wider range of light wavelengths and a new version of the night spectacles that allows more natural light through the lens, increasing visibility for aircrews.
“The main difference is that the Block 3s filter more wavelengths of light and provide more protection than the Block 2s,” Miltner said.
The duo also collaborates with technicians and airmen in the field to ensure that their technical orders and manuals are easily understood by the people who use the equipment every day.
“We go to an actual base where people are going to be using this equipment,” Miltner said. “We show them the manual, and we let them walk through the steps without us assisting just to make sure it all makes sense.”
Frost and Miltner see thousands of airmen using ALEP and the equipment they maintain, which gives meaning to their work, Frost said.
“It helps us make sure that they have everything they need, because a lot of this stuff is critical safety equipment and we want to keep our airmen and aircraft safe while they’re in the air,” he said.
AFLCMC/ROU plans to field more than 45,000 devices to Air Force units by 2029.