MCKINNEY, Texas – From several miles away, the water level inside a concrete water tower is clearly visible through the lenses of Raytheon’s [RTN] prototype next-generation thermal imaging camera.
More important to the intended customer, as five miles, the 3rd generation forward looking infrared technology can zoom in and produce images clear enough to determine the make and model of a moving vehicle.
Raytheon officials demonstrated those capabilities with a long range scout surveillance system (eLRAS3) during a visit to its production facility here. The company built six of the imagers, which are smaller by half than the LRAS currently in service, to demonstrate the power of 3rd-gen FLIR.
The technology is a drop-in replacement for any of the thousands of legacy FLIR systems that have given the Army an advantage since the Gulf War, according to Clay Towery, senior manager of business development for Raytheon ELCAN Optical innovations.
“It will double the range performance of what we have today, so that will sustain our combat overmatch for a certain period of time,” Towery said.
The market for a drop-in 3rd gen FLIR upgrade is enormous. More than 17,000 2nd generation imagers are fielded to U.S. military services. The Army is fully saturated with legacy FLIR devices, so Raytheon’s sales focus for 2nd-gen systems has shifted overseas, Towery said.
At least 4,000 units are fielded outside the United States, a market which is “critical to the industrial base,” Towery said. “It’s what keeps the lights on these days.”
Raytheon hopes 3rd-gen FLIR will fulfill the Army vision to baseline imaging sensors across the entire combat vehicle fleet with 3rd-gen FLIR, in phased acquisitions, achieving a common view of the battlefield to all ground troops.
Third generation FLIR is in development now, with engineering and manufacturing development awards for A-kit hardware enhancements of commander and gunner sights on Bradley and Abrams awarded to Raytheon in March.
A-kit is the physical hardware required to house and integrate a sensor system onto a particular vehicle and is unique to a platform. B kit is the sensor itself and other components that are common across platforms within the platform-unique B-kit hardware.
“What they are trying to do – the U.S. Army – is leverage production value, to have commonality across all the combat vehicle fleet, of B kit assemblies,” Towery said.
Raytheon teamed with DRS Technologies to provide 2nd-gen FLIR to the Army’s fleet of combat vehicles. The companies are teamed again in the effort to replace the sensors in the commander’s independent thermal viewer and gunner’s primary sight on Abrams, the commander’s independent viewer and improved acquisition subsystem on Bradley and the LRAS. The companies also are aiming to replace the FLIR on the Navy’s Phalanx close-in weapon system.
A request for proposals for the B kit sensor systems engineering and manufacturing development for Abrams and Bradley is expected in early 2017. General Dynamics [GD] and BAE Systems awarded the A-kit contracts as original equipment manufacturers of the Abrams and Bradley, respectively. The Army will award contracts for the common B-kit upgrades.
FLIR gave Army vehicle significant combat overmatch in the Gulf War, an advantage with its origin in investments made decades before that conflict. FLIR sensors detect heat and created detailed images from it, allowing vehicle commanders to see through darkness and adverse weather conditions at great distances and in very high definition. The range and resolution have improved dramatically with each generation of systems.
First generation FLIR involved development of common modular technology, which enabled first-gen FLIRs fielded in Vietnam and afterward. Second generation systems were launched and proven aboard Abrams tanks during the Gulf War.
Third-gen FLIR incorporates a “staring” two-dimensional array with multiple detectors that each can sense energy in both long- and mid-wave bands. Fielded 2nd gen FLIR can see in longwave, which can see in combat conditions through smoke and fog.
Mid-wave band is not as good for seeing through those conditions because the particles suspended in the air scatter light. What it provides is exceptional resolution – almost twice the resolution as its predecessor – of the image created in favorable conditions, Towery said. Third generation provides the benefit of both in the same system.
The Army’s requirements for a FLIR upgrade are that it maintains the same size, weight and power of the existing FLIR system at a competitive cost. Retrofitting the new sensor onto an Abrams is a bolt-off, bolt-on operation, said Michael Nave, Raytheon business development director for land warfare systems..
“In the early days, theoretically you had to make a decision of whether to go long-wave or to go mid-wave,” Nave said “There are pros and cons to each…If you wanted the best of both worlds, you had to buy two cameras and that became a very expensive proposition. With 3rd gen you no longer have to make that decision.”