Abstract: Measuring the high energy laser far-field irradiance distribution is an effective way to evaluate the performance of laser weapon system. Several existing measurement methods of high energy laser far-field irradiance distribution at home and abroad were compared and summarized. The advantages and disadvantages of various technologies were analyzed in detail, and the research progress of three key technologies, namely target surface anti-damage technology, sampling attenuation technology and power density calibration technology was introduced. On this basis, the development trend of direct measurement technology for high energy laser far-field irradiance distribution was described.