U.S-based Lockheed Martin company has been offered a $15 million grant for the supply of advanced near infrared sensing devices for use in two battalions of AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.
Based on the agreement, the company will be delivering 65 low-light-grade TV proficiency units or VNsights, encompassing spares and imagers to furnish a Foreign Military.
Monty Watson, VNsight program manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, comments that the advanced VNsight camera improves the functionality of Lockheed Martin’s Apache sensor and that the VNsight offers enhanced situational awareness of the pilot, enables flight safety and mission suppleness.
The company explained that by combining the VNsight imagery with the infrared imageryof Apache's Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensors, pilots are able to view the military and cultural lighting including lasers, beacons, markers, tracer rounds and many more that are precisely recorded within the thermal image covering the entire sensor’s 30-by-40° field of view.
This unique functionality provides reliable flying environment and improved mission proficiency by supplying intense situational awareness in low-light-level circumstances and situations, where the prevailing light sources are not easily be imaged by the FLIR.
Source: http://www.lockheedmartin.com