Elbit Systems Ltd. On Tuesday announced that it was awarded a contract to supply ground breaking, multi spectral BrightNite systems to an air force in a NATO country. The contract, in an amount of approximately $17 million, will be performed over a thirty-month period.
According to an Elbit statement, low-flying helicopters are especially vulnerable to threats such as difficult terrain, enemy fire and obstacles in the flight path. Sorties must be performed both day and night and often carried out in degraded visual environment (DVE) conditions, adding to the already heavy workload. Prior to BrightNite, flight crews had to rely on night vision goggles (which have limited capabilities) to accomplish their mission. Factors like complete darkness, poor weather conditions, brownouts, whiteouts and sandstorms limit the pilots’ Field of View (FOV).
Lightweight, compact and cost-effective, BrightNite delivers directly to both eyes of the pilot a crystal clear visual of the landscape, flight data, and especially the mission data, enabling intuitive flight in a head-up, eyes-out orientation in pitch dark and other DVE and low visibility landing conditions.
President and CEO of Elbit Systems Bezhalel (Butzi) Machlis said in a statement, “We are proud to have won this contract which enables helicopter pilots to gain highly advanced operational capabilities by flying in more than 90% of the nights and in adverse weather conditions. The BrightNite revolutionary solution is suitable for a variety of missions such as Special Forces and search and rescue. Given the important role helicopters are playing in the modern battlefield and the necessity of operating at night, we hope other customers will follow this selection by a NATO country’s air force.”