The DOD demand for beyond line of site capacity, driven by a more connected tactical environment and explosion in Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), has continued to grow substantially over the past several decades. Free space optical, or laser communications, has been rapidly maturing since the early 2000’s and has become a proven beyond line of sight technology capable of delivering more than multi-Gbps links via very small terminals. This provides a new means for high data rate, protected connectivity for the DOD. Not only does it help solve the relevant mission issues that persist today, but it opens up new possibilities and concepts of operation for the future.