Navy asks Kent Optronics to develop wide-field-of-view binocular night-vision goggles
CRANE, Ind., 9 May 2016. U.S. Navy electro-optics experts needed wide-field-of-view night-vision goggles to enable sailors, Seabees, Special Forces, Coast Guard, and Air Force experts to see clearly at night. They found their solution from Kent Optronics Inc. in Hopewell Junction, N.Y.
Officials of the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Ind., announced a $47.6 million research contract to Kent Optronics on Friday for wide-field-of-view night vision systems, retrofits, and data in the electro-optics project.
Kent Optronics experts will provide new wide-field-of-view night-vision devices, as well as upgrade kits for existing night-vision systems. The contract is a 5-year phase-three small business innovation research (SBIR) agreement.
These night-vision systems will involve an optical foveal design with 80-degree field of view that does not compromise optical resolution or size, weight, and power consumption, Navy officials say.
Kent Optronics engineers will provide new wide-field-of-view night-vision binocular goggles, as well as kits to upgrade existing AN/PVS-15 night vision binocular goggle systems for airborne, sea, undersea, and land-based military applications.
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The company will build binocular night-vision systems that weigh no more than less than 24 ounces, offer less than 4 percent distortion, and with eye-piece output in the green light spectrum around 543 nanometers.
Kent Optronics specializes in liquid crystal devices and electro-optical components and subsystems for infrared displays, special purpose displays, IR imaging & sensing, laser, and optical communications.
On this SBIR phase-three contract Kent Optronics will do the work in Hopewell Junction, N.Y., and should be finished by May 2021. For more information contact Kent Optronics online at www.kentoptronics.com, or the Naval Surface Warfare Center-Crane at www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/WarfareCenters/NSWCCrane.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
