Abstract: A coaxial, spacially gated, range gated, pulsed-beam, scanning system for use in turbid media, such as seawater, fog, snow, rain, blowing dust or sand. A laser emits a pulsed beam of light which travels to a beam splitter where part of the beam is transmitted and part is deflected. The transmitted beam is then deflected by an x-y scanning element such that a target is sequentially illuminated in a point-by-point manner. Light refected from the target travels back along the same path as the transmitted beam and is deflected by the beam splitter to a light sensor, such as photomultiplier tube.