Web Page sponsored by Blighter Surveillance Systems
www.blighter.com
————————————————————————-
15 Feb 18. Controp delivers to Vietnam Navy. Electro-optic specialists Controp has completed deliveries of its iSea-40HD maritime electro-optical/infrared payload to the Vietnamese Navy under the terms of a contract announced in November 2017.
The sensor system will be integrated onto an undisclosed navy vessel, and is a follow on to a previous order from Hanoi that saw a different Controp payload delivered for integration on another vessel type three years ago.
The 29kg iSea-40HD has a thermal camera with continuous optical zoom, a full HD day camera, and four gimbals for increased stabilisation, while an additional laser pointer or laser range finder can also be added as an option.
iSea is a family of systems, and the iSea-30HD variant has been provided to the Australian Border Force for maritime monitoring, while the iSea-50HD system is pending delivery to an undisclosed Asia-Pacific customer for integration onto patrol boats.
‘Controp is concentrating on the Asia Pacific, particularly regarding EO/IR upgrades for the maritime market, mission systems for maritime air patrol and EEZ protection…and coastal surveillance,’ Nir Bar-Natan, marketing director at the company, told Shephard.
He added that EO/IR is used across all operating sectors in the region, although these end users are relatively new adopters of this type of technology, having only recently realised the benefits of this type of sensing.
‘Similarly, only recently have their budgets allowed them to consider these technologies,’ Bar-Natan adds. ‘In addition, prices of these technologies have gone down over the years, again enabling them to incorporate these purchases into their budgets.’ (Source: Shephard)
13 Feb 18. Turning Night Into Daytime. Multiple sensors covering near infrared, MWIR and visible wavelengths coupled with laser, GPS, DMC (Digital Magnetic Compass) and inclinometer sensors and a variety of interfaces to provide connectivity are packed into the Safran’s JIM Compact observation and targeting device. (Safran)
As with anything that infantry is expected to carry, night vision device design must incorporate compromises balancing capability against the load they impose in terms of weight, bulk and power consumption.
Although core sensor technology is getting smaller, lighter and more frugal in its use of power while covering more bands of the electromagnetic spectrum than ever before, those spectral bands are made visible by different technologies. This forces the soldier to choose which spectral bands they will need to see, to carry several different devices, or to carry bulky apparatus that combine two or more sensor technologies. Those spectral bands include visible light, of which there is usually enough from the moon, stars or artificial sources. Sensors that amplify visible light often have an extended response into the longer wavelengths of the near Infrared (IR) spectrum. These include the analogue image intensifiers that have dominated infantry night vision for decades, and digital Complementary Metal Oxide Silicon (CMOS) chips that are finally challenging these legacy devices in some of these applications.
Intensified improvement
Israel’s Meprolight, for example, makes infantry observation devices and weapon sights based on image intensifiers. As analogue devices in an increasingly digital world, image intensifiers couldbe considered anomalous, but their performance continues to improve: “Slowly and surely, I have seen the technology advancing, mainly in the quality of the picture produced by the tubes themselves,” said Yonatan Pinkas, director of sales and marketing at Meprolight: “Once you could have got a certain detection, recognition, or identification range on one tube with a certain magnification, but now with the same magnification on a sight, for example, you can get to long