[en] The principal undertaking of the Beam Research Program over the past decade has been the investigation of propagating intense self-focused beams. Recently, the major activity of the program has shifted toward the investigation of converting high quality electron beams directly to laser radiation. During the early years of the program, accelerator development was directed toward the generation of very high current (>10 kA), high energy beams (>50 MeV). In its new mission, the program has shifted the emphasis toward the production of lower current beams (>3 kA) with high brightness (>10⁶ A/(rad-cm)²) at very high average power levels. In efforts to produce these intense beams, the state of the art of linear induction accelerators (LIA) has been advanced to the point of satisfying not only the current requirements but also future national needs