12/21/2023 0 Comments Enhanced night vision goggle binocular![]() “Now, the entire system that was in a bag is on my body.” “On past deployments, if I wanted some kind of thermal observation, I had to have a different bag with about 20 batteries or so to make it last for a 24-hour operation,” Baker said. Batteries add significant weight so anytime battery life could increase, it allows the soldier to carry fewer batteries. Reducing weight for the soldier was a driving factor in much of the design of all the equipment fielded this week. The helmet’s creation took about 18 months - a process that was sped up to meet the timeline of the goggles, Whitehead said. Any holes drilled into the helmet increase vulnerability, she said.Īlready working on the helmet, her team collaborated with the goggles team since the two items needed to work together for soldiers. Instead of drilling holes to attach chin straps, the outer materiel of the helmet was built up to create a place to attach items. ![]() “How do I make soldiers more survivable but also lighter?” “My charter is to continue driving the weight of personal protective equipment down,” Whitehead said. Ginger Whitehead, a product manager with PEO Soldier. These new helmets are 5% lighter than the helmets soldiers wear now and offer better protection for ballistic and blunt impacts, said Lt. “We might not have gotten it just right for soldiers without that.”Īlong with the goggles, 150 updated helmets were delivered to 2nd Brigade. “That young Marine actually asked for more information in his goggles,” he said. When testing the goggles with Marines, Hodne said he asked one young Marine whether there was too much data on the screen. “Generationally, my views on some of the data is different than young kids.” “We’ve now put out a heads-up display that is providing a lot more real-time information,” he said. David Hodne, director of the Futures Command's Soldier Lethality Cross Functional Team, said the touch points also helped clear the generational differences between young soldiers and senior leaders. This fast-paced feedback loop ultimately sped up the 18-month process of fielding the device, which was a collaboration between PEO Soldier and Army Futures Command, as well as the Marine Corps.īrig. These were opportunities for soldiers to test and try the equipment to offer feedback, which was turned around on the next version of the goggles, sometimes within a week. The details and capabilities of the goggles were tested through “touch points” with soldiers. It’s going to cut stops and cut down on the time it takes to get to an objective.” “I could just put on my goggle and select my way point. “Paired with the and augmented reality, you’re no longer stopping to do map checks,” he said. He has been on four deployments, split evenly between Iraq and Afghanistan. 1st Class Brion Baker, technical adviser for the Soldier Lethality Cross Functional Team, said he sees the digital magnetic compass as something that he would have found extremely helpful on any of his previous four deployments. The new weapon optic weighs about 1.2 pounds. One setting allows the soldier to view what is visible through the sight on their weapon, so the soldier could stand protected behind a wall, point their weapon out and see around the corner. Because the new night vision works without ambient light, all this can occur in tunnels, buildings without windows or on a cloudy, starless night.Ī remote attached to a soldier’s weapon allows him or her to toggle between viewing modes and displays - again keeping the soldier’s eyes on the battlefield. The goggles augment reality so allies on the map appear on the display as the soldiers look at their surroundings. ![]() In a presentation about these capabilities, members of Program Executive Office Soldier team, the Army entity known as PEO Soldier that prototypes, procures and fields new equipment, explained improved goggles mean soldiers will be able to see better in smoke and dust, see about 1,500 meters, which is farther than they can shoot with precision, and have information on the location of allies displayed through the goggles from their mapping system so they do not have to look down. It has about a six-hour battery life from a battery pack that attaches to the back of the helmet. This offers better depth perception than a monocular design and a clearer image than older night vision devices, according to a news release about the goggles. Weighing about 2.5 pounds, the goggles offer a fused display comprised of an image intensifier and thermal imagery in a binocular design. The goggles are the first to offer soldiers capabilities during the day and night, and they have two viewing tubes that attach to a soldier’s helmet and flip down for viewing. “It increases their survivability, their lethality and I’m proud to be a part of it,” Grinston said.
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