Boston Laser is the exclusive supplier of the laser marker for Litening II the joint Northrop Grumman – Rafael advanced targeting and navigation pod. Recently the lasers, made in Binghamton, were re-qualified by the defense contractor.

B-52 dopping a bomb directed by Litening

Litening II was used extensively and efficiently in the Iraq war. Fore instance, Litening equipped Harrier aircraft was used as a surveillance platform in the rescue of PFC Jessica Lynch.

This is what Defense Daily wrote about Litening in combat on April 14, 2003:

For the first time in combat history, a B-52 Stratofortress used a Litening II targeting pod to strike targets at an airfield in northern Iraq on 11 April, according to officials at the US Central Command's combined air operations centre. The system was tested earlier this month.

Using the Litening II system, a crew of reservists from the 93rd Bomb Squadron (BS) based at Barksdale Air Force Base (AFB), Louisiana, and active-duty airmen from the 23rd BS at Minot AFB, North Dakota, flew the bomber from a forward-deployed location and dropped one laser-guided GBU-12 Paveway II munitions on a radar complex and another on a command complex at the airfield, officials said.

The Litening II pod provides real-time images, increasing an aircrew's flexibility to identify targets in a battlefield environment. The pod then allows the B-52 radar-navigator to designate the targets and direct laser-guided weapons without having to rely on another aircraft or person on the ground to "paint" the target with a separate laser marker.