In my case, I was working in a group that was developing lasers for sensing applications -- both lasers that would be used for imaging, and lasers that would be used for chemical detection (i.e. be in a region of the spectrum where a hcemical of interest had strong absorption lines). In most cases, the desire was also to have laser sources that would be more "eyesafe" -- there are by by-laws associated with the Geneva Convention about trying to limit blinding the enemy (it's ok to kill them, but you should avoid unnecessarily blinding them)... and of course you also don't want to blind your own troops. (Eyesafeness is related to the frequency/color of light, as well as the intensity.)
Other parts of the same building I worked in were testing optics that would work with these sources and creating systems that would go onto test flights.
It certainly was a fun place to work... but I was glad I worked in the basic development, so almost everything I worked on is in the public domain of knowledge... and the applications for the sources I used were also probably fairly noble -- let's hit the right target and not unnecessarily hurt people.
)