OH-58D Kiowa Warrior
(click to view full)

DRS Technologies, Inc. in Parsippany, NJ recently announced that it has received a pair of orders for thermal sights. One $54 million contract from Raytheon will provide 2nd Generation FLIR systems to the US Army for its M1A2 SEP Abrams tank and M2A3 Bradley IFV enhancements, as part of a common sighting technology initiative embedded in both the Abrams’ GEN II TIS sights and the Bradleys’ IBAS. DID has covered the practical benefits of these upgrades on the battlefield. The $33 million award from the US Army, meanwhile, is for support of the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior scout helicopter’s mast mounted sights. It’s part of a larger $514 million contract won in December 2003.

The DRS releases linked here provide excellent information regarding the products themselves, and the context in which they are being fielded. Their explanations of the US Army’s Horizontal Technology Integration (HTI) Second Generation Forward Looking Infrared (HTI SGF) sighting systems program, and of the battlefield benefits of mast-mounted helicopter sights vs. roof-mounted alternatives, are particularly worthy of note.