High power InGaAs multi-mode broad area semiconductor lasers emitting between 190 nm and 980 nm are required as optical pumps for Er+ and Yb+ doped double clad fiber lasers and amplifiers. In this paper, we present performance and reliability of two generations of 100 micrometer aperture broad area devices emitting at 920 nm and 970 nm. The first generation devices have been deployed in the field with up to 2.5 W ex-facet optical power. More than 500,000 device-hrs of actual multi-cell lifetest data, and nearly 100 million accelerated device-hrs have been accumulated with 91FIT at 1.2W and 25 degrees Celsius or 1.9 million hrs MTBF at 2W and 25 degrees Celsius. A next-generation design further reduces thermal resistance, optical loss, and far-field divergence resulting in up to 4W ex-facet CW output power with superb reliability. Multi-mode fiber coupled modules demonstrate high coupling efficiency due to the reduced divergence angles of the new design. Lifetest of the new generation devices demonstrate the reliability of 167 FIT at 2W and 25 degrees Celsius or 499,000 hrs MTBF at 4W and 25 degrees Celsius.