1) POET provides low-cost optical thyristor arrays that can be used as dual-mode sensor/laser arrays (same panel can find targets and destroy them)

2) POET arrays can be constructed to be flexible, allowing them to easily be attached to the surface of complex shapes like aircraft and ships, forming an “active skin”

3) This configuration will allow aircraft and ships to service targets much more quickly than the separate sensor-gun-missile systems that represent current state of the art

4) Due to the inherent physical properties of GaAs, POET sensor arrays can achieve superior resolution for SWIR, MWIR, and LWIR applications to the best silicon sensors currently available, and can achieve this performance without the elaborate and heavy electromagnetic shielding and liquid nitrogen cryogenic cooling required by silicon-based systems

5) Main reason the US Government has funded research for so long (19 years and counting…)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAchHFziGfY

cheers