Riza’s Defense Optics activities started from his Caltech Ph.D days in the mid-80’s where he showed for the first time how acousto-optics could be used to control transmit and receive mode phased array radars. Later work revolved around developing next generation highest phase stability acousto-optic signal processors such as convolvers, correlators, and spectrum analyzers for wideband Electronic Warfare (EW) applications. Additional innovations included powerful Range-Doppler and transversal filter optical implementations suited for extreme bandwidth and signal complexity radar signal processing. Another aspect of Riza group innovations includes a series of novel beamforming control systems for Phased Array Radars for both narrowband and wideband operations. The group has also pioneered optical security systems using multi-dimensional optical ID cards and a new Hybrid Photonic Signal Processing technique that combines the worlds of analog and digital signal processing.