MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. – BAE Systems had a full array of optical systems on display at the Modern Day Marine symposium this week, including its Check-6 thermal imaging cameras mounted on the taillights military vehicles.
BAE has sold more than 30,000 Check-6 systems to the Marine Corps and Army for installment on Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (MRAPs), Kim Unberhagen, a company vice president for business development, said.
Check-6 is designed to enhance situational awareness on the battlefield in part by assisting soldiers with a visual before exiting the vehicle during combat operations. Check-6 embeds color infrared camera into an LED equipped taillight assembly.
BAE also had a host of its Thermal Weapon Sights (TWS) for target recognition exhibited at the annual event. The company has been contracted by the Army to provide 100,000 of the sights, which function in daytime and nighttime conditions, Paul Dynan, also a business development official at BAE, said.
BAE’s light variant of the TWS (AN/PAS-13C(V)1) is a short-range scope with a recognition range of 680 meters and can be mounted on M4s and M-16s The medium range version (AN/PAS-13C(V)2) has a recognition range adding up to 1,100 meters. It can be installed on the same guns or lighter machine guns, Dynan said. The heavy variant ((AN/PAS-13C(V)3) boasts a range of 2,200 meters and is designed to be installed on heavy, 50-caliber machine guns.
A head-mounted device can also be attached to the TWSs that allow the soldier to view the imaging without having to look directly through the gun scope.