http://ukarmedforcescommentary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-infantry-of-army-2020-lethality.html
Sights and Night Vision
Following a variety of UORs which brought into service a wide range of day and night sights, from the ACOGs to the MaxiKite, the Synergistic Individual Surveillance Target & Acquisition (SISTA) UOR brought into service a number of
VIPIR2+ night thermal weapon sights, which had already been preceeded by 300 hand-held VIPIR-S surveillance sights ordered in March 2006 and by a further 450 ordered in January 2007.
VIPIR2+ sights installed on a GPMG and SA80. Now that FIST STA solved the problem of providing night sights to the dismounts, it is likely that the VIPIR2s will more and more frequently be seen on support weapons, from GPMG to HMG and GMG
The Army was finally able to move onwards with FIST STA in 2009, and place a coherent order for the complete re-equipping of pretty much the whole army.
In fact, the
initial order, signed in September 2009 was for delivery and in-service support of 95 Infantry Company ‘packs’, but in December 2010
a follow-on order of 51 further packs brought the total to 146 Companies, enough for whole (or almost) of RAF Regiment, Royal Marines and British Army. The first 95 Company Packs will all be delivered by 2014, with the rest to follow.
FIST STA includes:
Lightweight Day Sight ELCAN Specter OS4X each man in the Section gets one. It is the intended replacement for the SUSAT, with the (still evolving) plan predicting a gradual retirement of the SUSAT, to be complete by 2025. The ELCAN is a 4x sight, and is fitted as backup for close range engagement with the Shield-produced Mini Sight Reflex Red-Dot, said to be the smallest and most compact red-dot sight in the world.
The introduction in service of the L129A1 rises an interesting question, as the sharpshooter in the Section envisaged by FIST was to employ the L86A2 LSW, with the 4x sight. As we have said, the L129A1 is using a 6x ACOG sight, and it would be a retrograde step to reduce the magnification available to the marksmen. As I write, it is currently unclear what the long term solution will be. Perhaps bringing into FIST the ACOG 6x, or adding a dedicate procurement of the ELCAN 6x…?
Fist Thermal Sight (FTS) a high performance un-cooled Thermal Weapon Sight that provides the User with 24hr target detection, acquisition & engagement capabilities out to extended ranges, in every weather conditions and even in total absence of any external light source. The FTS is equipped with a 640x480 format un-cooled thermal core, and is powered from AA batteries.
The FTS has an integrated Infra Red Laser Aimer (IRLA) for enhanced target identification, along with the integrated fall-back Close Quarter Battlesight (CQB) red dot sight from Shield, as we said earlier.
The FTS also has the ability to be controlled remotely via the weapon hand guard, again demonstrating an enhancement in the wider integration context.
In each 4-man Fire Team, the FTS is assigned to the Leader and to the LMG Gunner.
Common Weapon Sight the Pilkington Kite night sight is a Generation III Image Intensification (II) night sight capable to use starlight or moonlight to provide night vision. In the Army is known as Common Weapon Sight, and has been around for some time. Under FIST STA, the sight is upgraded and fitted with the Shield red dot, and then re-issued. It is used by the Grenadier and provides 4x magnification. It weights 990g excluding the 2 batteries and offers night detection of a standing man out to 500 meters with sole starlight available.
MaxiKite 2 is the big brother of the CWS, and just as CWS it was already in service prior to FIST STA contract. Like the CWS, it gets upgraded and fitted with the red-dot before being re-issued. The Maxikite offers 6x magnification and allows targeting at night over long range (a standing man will be seen at 750 meters) and will be issued to the Sharpshooter. It weights 1.36 kg and can operate for 70 hours with a couple of batteries.
Grenadier UGL Fire Control System the SA80A2 with UGL is fitted with a UGL sight provided as a UOR by Istec Services of Hertfordshire, coupled with the FIST-specific Rapid Acquisition Aiming Module fire control system jointly developed by Vectronix of Switzerland and Wilcox Industries. RAAM instantly calculates the distance, angle of declination or inclination, and adjusts the point of aim accordingly.
The combined solution is valid day and night, and reduces the Circular Error Probable to 5 meters over a 300 meters range.
MOSKITO Commander’s Target Locator a
binocular day/night target acquisition system, weighting less than 1.2 kg and offering 5x daylight and 3x night magnification with a 24 hours of night vision observation duration with a set of batteries. MOSKITO measures range, azimuth and vertical angle, locating NATO standard targets up to 4 km away.
Ruggerized Digital Camera a sturdy, highly resistant digital camera to take photos or short videos valuable for intelligence examination. Issued one per Section. This commercial off-the-shelf camera produced by Olympus was specified for FIST due to its ability to transmit and receive images from patrols. Weighing only 200 grams (6.4 oz.), it is designed for harsh conditions. The camera reportedly operates even after being immersed in 10 meters (33 ft.) of water or dropped 2 meters.
Lightweight Infantry Periscope produced by Uniscope, Israel, this foldable periscope is issued one per Section and enables soldier to look past a corner without exposing themselves. It is seen as an interim solution: cameras integrated in the rifle sight relaying imagery to a head mounted display were trialed, but judged not yet mature enough. Besides, with the freezing of the “C4I” elements of FIST, there is currently no data architecture and no selected display to use in such a system, which features, instead, in Soldier Systems such as Italy’s Soldato Futuro, France’s FELIN, the various US projects and so along. This architecture makes it possible to fire accurately exposing only the weapon past the cover, something that with the LIP is not possible.
The LIP offers a 12-deg. field of view and 3X magnification.
Overview of the FIST STA items, and how they fit into a 4-man fireteam as of 2011. Note that on operations, the L129A1 is used in the Sharpshooter role, one per Section. Since a Section has 2 fireteams, in the future one of the two Sharpshooters might continue to use the LSW. The LIP (Lightweight Infantry Periscope) is issued one per Section, as is the Ruggerized Digital Camera (RDC). The MOSKITO Commander's Target Locating System (CTLS) is issued to each fireteam leader, so 2 per Section. Everyone gets the Light Laser Marker and the HMNVS night vision.
While not procured under FIST STA, the Light
Laser Marker (LLM) is an important component of the Lethality package. Issued in measure of one per soldier, the
LLM-01, a design by Oerlikon Contraves, is a small unit mounted on the personal weapon and combining Visible Red Laser Beam Marker; Invisible IR laser marker for use with night vision equipment; IR illuminator, again for facilitating use of Night Vision equipment and II weapon sights and a Lamp Head (Visible Light torch) or Laser Head available in Marker and Illuminating variants.
LLM unit: (1) Visible Red Light Laser (2) Invisible IR laser (3) IR illuminator provides invisible light for use with NVG (4) Visible Lamp Light or IR Invisible Lamp Light
In the same role, the Special Forces favor the
AN/PEQ-2, which is standard issue of the US forces.
This well known photo of a squad from the Special Forces Support Group (1 PARA) shows an H&K 417 sharpshooter rifle (second man knelling from the left) and SA80 rifles all very evidently fitted with the AN/PEQ-2
Also not directly a FIST STA component, the
Head-Mounted Night Vision System (HMNVS) AN/PVS-14 is fundamental. This monocular sight, used extensively by the US forces as well, is now the standard night sight for the british armed forces, with 32.000 units in inventory as of 2011 and some 10.000 more planned, enough to give night vision to all deployed soldiers, in each section. An
additional order (for all of the 10.000 planned?) has been placed in early april this year, with deliveries to be completed by 2016.
AN/PVS-14 can also be used hand-held or rifle mounted
The British Armed Forces also use the LUCIE sight, and will use it at least out to 2023 according to current plans. LUCIE is an image intensified (II) night vision goggle.
In this area, in 10 years, the British Army made huge leaps, as
this historic figure from a 2003 Written Answer show: back then, Night Vision was pretty much stuff for special forces, with available numbers of sights for the PBI (Poor Bloody Infantryman) low or extremely low.
In the future, FIST envisages a Head Mounted Sight (a function of a multirole Head Mounted Display, I believe, like in other Soldier Modernization programmes) and a new kind of “all-doing” weapon sight combining optical, Image Intensifier and Thermal Imaging modes to provide a day/night all-weather system.
Research and development should start in 2014/15, and proceed towards a FIST 2 capability which will start delivering from 2018. FIST 1 is the current FIST package in delivery: it had to comprise Increment 1A (the weapon sights as listed above) and a Situational Awareness/C4I package under Increment 1B.
Increment 1B was cancelled, and FIST restructured in “epochs” (1, 2 and 3). Epoch 2 will be particularly important as it is a bridge, comprising the many UORs moving into Core post-Afghanistan, towards the targets of the full FIST platform for the 2030.
Another Surveillance and Target Acquisition instrument available to the Army at Team level and above is the
Thales Surveillance System And Range Finder (SSARF), 707 of which have been procured with
deliveries completed in 2011. The SSARF is similar in concept to the MOSKITO, but features an un-cooled thermal sight element, and is used by Fire Support Teams to detect targets for subsequent mortar, artillery or air attack.
Observing with SSARF
Again, the British Army ordered in March 2012 a significant number of Sagem (Safran group)
JIM LR (Long Range) multifunction infrared binoculars for the “Long Range Thermal Imager” requirement. The JIM LR offers day/night (infrared) vision, rangefinding, laser pointer, North seeker, GPS and data transmission. The British Army variant also provides Image Fusion between the infrared and visible channels, to penetrate camouflage during the day, and to provide true all-weather vision (through smoke, etc.). It will also be able to record imagery on USB supports.
VIPIR-S, SSARF and JIM LR should more than make up for the soon to come retirement of the old LION short range and SOPHIE Medium Range thermal imagers, by providing greatly increased Short, Medium and Long range thermal imaging and surveillance capability.