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Arlington-based Leonardo DRS Inc. has received a five-year, $579 million contract to make the Army’s next-generation thermal weapons sight, the company announced Monday.
The company’s electro-optical infrared systems business will produce the device — a stand-alone, clip-on weapon sight that connects wirelessly to helmet-mounted vision systems. Called the Family of Weapons Sights – Individual, it uses Leonardo DRS’ uncooled thermal imaging technology and gives users the capability to locate targets during day and night and in smoke or fog. It will connect to the Army’s enhanced night-vision goggle binoculars as well as the service’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System, an augmented reality headset being tested by the service.
The sights use a vanadium oxide micro-electromechanical focal plane array that requires no visible light to operate.
“We are proud to continue to provide this cutting-edge technology that ensures our soldiers will have the most advanced weapon sight systems on the battlefield today, and well into the future,” Jerry Hathaway, senior vice president and general manager of the Leonardo DRS’ Dallas-based electro-optical infrared systems business, said in a statement. “We have a long history of supplying the Army with advanced electro-optic and infrared technologies, and this award will help to keep soldiers safe and better ensure their mission is accomplished.
Michael Mount, a spokesperson for Leonardo DRS, said the company will likely produce thousands of the sights. They will be manufactured in the company’s electro-optical Infrared systems facility Melbourne, Florida.
In August, Reston-based satellite telecommunications company SES Government Solutions completed its $450 million acquisition of Leonardo DRS’s Global Enterprise Solutions satellite communications subsidiary. In June, the company announced that it would merge with Israel-based Rada Electronic Industries Ltd. and become public.