The Army has awarded RTX [RTX] a contract worth up to $117.5 million to provide the latest Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) sensor kits for installation on combat vehicles.
The low-rate initial production (LRIP) deal for 3rd Generation FLIR B-kits will begin with integration on Abrams tanks, with RTX adding the work could include delivering the new targeting system for “optionally manned fighting vehicles.”
“This technology supports the U.S. Army’s modernization effort to ensure the force is ready to address near-peer competitors,” Torrey Cady, RTX’s vice president of electro-optical and infrared solutions, said in a statement. “Our technological advancements in the sensors reduce latency and give military forces a critical battlefield edge by exceeding overall performance of prior generation systems.”
The Army’s program executive office for intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors (PEO IEW&S) said the new 3GEN FLIR B-Kit will allow sight operators to “detect, recognize, and identify enemy targets with increased clarity and at significantly increased ranges.”
“The 3GEN FLIR will play an integral role in ensuring overmatch for detection, recognition, and identification of enemy activity and threats beyond the enemy’s detection capabilities. We are very excited to be entering LRIP and to culminate many years of research and development on what is an extremely complex, cutting-edge technology,” Lareina Adams, the Army’s project manager for terrestrial sensors, said in a statement.
The 3GEN FLIR kit will replace the second-generation technology, with RTX noting it has delivered “more than 25,000” such sensors over the last 20 years to the Army.
“For decades, the [2nd-Generation FLIR] was a game-changer on the battlefield, enabling operators to see farther and with more clarity than the enemy. The program also served as an exemplar of the application of horizontal technology integration, or ‘HTI,’ into existing combat platforms, such as the Abrams tank and Bradley Fighting Vehicle,” PEO IEW&S said in a statement.
RTX added the dual-band infrared system it will deliver to the Army will allow operators to see “in the dead of night and adverse battlefield and [in] weather conditions even at great distances to aid mission planning and execution.”