How are modern military technologies (I.e. Thermal imaging, laser designators, missile defense systems, etc) actually developed from scratch, and what did the early developments look like decades ago?

Question

I’m really fascinated by the progress which is very visible in military technologies. Even ‘simple’ technology, such as radar, baffle me when you think of just how the pioneer devices were made, I.e. how did they manage to make the devices used to process the information/data collected.

In: Technology

Answer 1

The “developed from scratch” part of your question is what baffles me. Almost all evolutionary developments – often with both military and non-military applications driving the development. It is not a single process ether – thermal imaging has a lot of “civilian” applications, lasers are used in research, communications and other tasks.