EL SEGUNDO, Calif., July 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Cambium, a developer and manufacturer of advanced materials for defense and high-performance applications, launched SentinelOps™, a dual-use, tunable laser eye protection (LEP) and directed-energy (DE) protection technology platform. The first product to launch from this platform is a line of category-disrupting LEP that provides both robust eye protection and high-fidelity vision.
Laser illumination incidents against commercial, private, transport and military aircraft pilots are a clear and present threat that can with just one second of exposure cause flash blindness, transient eyesight impairment, and in some cases career-ending vision injury. Weaponized laser strikes are also being used against military personnel and civilian personnel at sea and on the ground. For far too long this threat factor in the field has been minimized, largely because luck, not protection, has prevented a catastrophe.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) logs tens of thousands of cockpit laser illumination incidents each year against commercial airlines, air-cargo operators, and general aviation. Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago airports are among the highest-frequency strike corridors in the nation. Existing protection has forced an unacceptable tradeoff: filter the threat, sacrifice visual performance. SentinelOps LEP changes that.
SentinelOps is built on Cambium’s integrated materials platform, where material design, process development, qualification, and manufacturing operate as a single system rather than a chain of handoffs. That integration is what allows SentinelOps to selectively attenuate laser threats across the visible and near-infrared spectrum while preserving the color fidelity, contrast, and visual usability operators depend on, at a level not previously achieved in the category. This technology platform spans protective eyewear, optical sensors, aircraft transparencies, windscreens, visors and space-based optical systems.
Cambium Senior Optics Products Manager Kevin Nottage said, “SentinelOps is built on a simple premise: laser and directed energy protection shouldn’t be limited by form factor. Whether that’s eyewear, cockpit windows, or sensor platforms operating from the ground to space, the solution should be equally adaptable. We started with optics because that’s where the gap was most visible. Color fidelity and visual acuity had become tradeoffs the industry simply accepted. SentinelOps doesn’t accept those tradeoffs. And that same design philosophy scales to any aperture, any platform, any environment.”
The Cambium dual-use LEP technology rapidly transitioned from ideation to commercial product through internal R&D and with US government and defense program support, in particular BioMADE (the Bioindustrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem), a US Department of Defense ManTech organization operating under the Office of the Secretary of Defense Manufacturing Technology Office. Cambium LEP also benefited from technical collaboration with, and live demo support at, the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD), China Lake, a longtime Cambium technology development partner, along with demo and field test support from Mojave Air & Space Port and National Test Pilot School in Mojave, CA.
SentinelOps LEP Product Profile
- Industry-leading optical color acuity | operators retain full differentiation of cockpit instrumentation, panel lighting, and color-coded controls under active laser protection
- Full threat-spectrum coverage | protection across visible and near-infrared (near-IR) laser illumination threats encountered in commercial and military aviation
- Photostability | stable under hundreds of seconds of continuous 532nm laser exposure
- UV stability | stable for 200+ hours of QUV exposure
- Scratch-resistant | lens performance unaffected by surface scratches
- Dazzle-angle agnostic | protection effective regardless of the angle of laser incidence
- Prescription-compatible | lenses available in prescription formats
- PFAS-free materials | engineered for performance without per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances
- Form-factor agnostic
SentinelOps laser-protective eyewear will be available for live demonstrations, starting July 20-26, 2026 at the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, the world’s largest annual gathering of aviation enthusiasts and recreational pilots. And at the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) Air Safety Forum in Washington, DC, September 14–17, 2026.
About Cambium
Cambium is building the advanced materials base for those building the future. The company integrates AI-driven materials discovery, rapid product development, industrialized qualification, and flexible manufacturing into a single operating system — compressing the path from invention to qualified production from years to months. Cambium’s advanced composites and specialty materials serve customers across defense, aerospace, space, high-performance automotive and other industries where performance and speed of supply are decisive. Headquartered in El Segundo, CA, Cambium operates four manufacturing, development, and testing facilities across the US, UK, and EU. Visit cambiumglobal.com
For more information, contact Stephan Herrera, Co-founder, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Government Affairs at stephan.herrera@cambiumglobal.com
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SOURCE Cambium Biomaterials, Inc
