The first-ever metamaterial lens has been created. Researchers at Cornell University’s Department of Applied Engineering Physics and Samsung’s Advanced Institute of Technology recently proved that the metamaterials lens concept is feasible. The new metamaterials lens is significant because it can be “focused using voltage instead of mechanically moving the component,” Jules Menten writes in the California News-Times, which “opens the door to a range of compact varifocal lenses that can be used in many imaging applications such as satellites, telescopes, and microscopes.” 

Undoubtedly, the emergence of metamaterial lenses will affect future warfighting capabilities.