Strong Technology Lineup At Owning The Night – Fighting the 24 Hour War
By Julian Nettlefold
Owning The Night held at The Defence Academy of the UK, Shrivenham November 29 -30, discussed the major leaps in technology since our last event in 2009. The list of speakers from the MoD and industry was impressive, discussing a wide range of technologies and systems on the market today. The battle for Mosul currently being waged shows clearly the need for advanced night vision and infantry systems in a battle that can only be won with bots on the ground clearing streets house by house, street by street 24/7.
Qioptiq – Engage, Enable, Excel – Qioptiq Was the Headline Sponsor for Owning The Night
“Today’s peacekeepers face a multitude of threats whilst operating in a myriad of environments and conditions. Add to this the requirement to carry out missions in darkness and the difficulty increases exponentially. The development of new tactics and new equipment to help counter the adverse effects of weather, terrain and lighting are vital to assist the operator in completing mission critical assignments. But how does the User know what products are available to them and the benefits to be derived from the latest state of the art equipment.
One way is through such events as Owning the Night held in November 2016 at the Defence Academy at Shrivenham in the UK. Owning The Night gave Army Commanders, Police and Industry a taste of the future at the Conference and the ability to try the latest night vision devices from weapon sights through night driving aids to advanced target tracking and identification systems.
At Qioptiq we take our responsibility to the End User very seriously which is why we gave this event our full support, taking the role of headline sponsor. We know our equipment is vital to the men and women carrying out a difficult and dangerous missions all over the world and so it is important to be able to brief on the latest developments and gain insight from the people who depend on our products.” Craig Taylor, Marketing Communications Manager of Qioptiq said.
Qioptiq is part of Excelitas Technologies, an international provider to the defence and aerospace markets.
Qioptiq is known for providing advanced optical modules for Airborne, Vehicle, Man Portable and Naval applications as well as military & civil Head-up Displays, Head level Displays and Helmet-Mounted Displays. But some of our greatest advancements have been made in the areas of vision solutions for image intensified, uncooled thermal and fused surveillance, target acquisition and engagement equipment – and it was these sighting systems we demonstrated at Owning the Night.
Kite In-Line (KiL) is a new compact Image Intensified Weapon Sight that is mounted on a weapon in front of a magnified day sight. The KiL has particular advantages compared to other similar equipment, in that it offers an excellent range performance-to-weight ratio, combined with superior product reliability that’s inherent to all Qioptiq weapon sight designs. This system has been selected for the Australian Defence Force Land 125 requirement.
Qioptiq is at the forefront of fused weapon sight development, which has recently culminated in the launch of the SAKER fused weapon sight for Assault Rifles and Sharpshooter weapon platforms. SAKER is a high performance in-line fused weapon sight combining image intensified and thermal imaging technologies to deliver enhanced 24 hr capability.
DRAGON-S (Sniper) is a Clip-On Thermal Weapon Sight providing snipers with 24-hour surveillance and target engagement capability for a range of optical dayscopes. It is factory set to eliminate the need for zeroing when the thermal sight is fitted and removed from the front of the dayscope.
Dragon Compact 640 is an ultra-lightweight, small, multipurpose thermal weapon sight. It uses the latest uncooled thermal cameras and optical technology to provide a compact sight capable of be