LEXINGTON, Massachusetts -- BAE Systems will provide thermal weapon sights to the U.S. Army under a $56 million contract that continues production of the widely-used sights that improve situational awareness and survivability for men and women in combat.

The second-generation thermal sights give soldiers a tremendous day/night advantage to detect, observe and engage the enemy on today’s battlefield by providing imagery independent of darkness, smoke and other common battlefield obscurants. Under the contract, BAE Systems will provide light, medium and heavy variants for use on individual and crew served weapons.

“BAE Systems is the world’s number one provider of thermal sights, giving men and women serving in harm’s way the ability to see through obscured visibility conditions, day or night,” said Barry Yeadon, director of thermal weapon sight programs for BAE Systems in Lexington, Massachusetts.

The company now provides thermal weapon sights to the U.S. and several other countries. This order is the most recent under a five-year indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract administered by the Army’s Research and Development Command Acquisition Center. A previous award increased BAE Systems' total thermal weapon sight contract value to more than $1 billion since 2004.

To date, BAE Systems has delivered more than 94,000 sights to meet Army fielding requirements to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BAE Systems produces light, medium, and heavy thermal weapon sights using the company's MicroIR® uncooled infrared sensor technology to generate superior infrared imagery without the need for bulky, power-consuming cryogenic cooling equipment. BAE Systems has completed rigorous field testing of its thermal sights, demonstrating their ability to withstand harsh battlefield environments.

BAE Systems
26.04.2011