Driving Military Vehicle at Night will Now be Safer

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Long-wave IR (LWIR) sensors have become an integral part of the warfighter’s vehicle capabilities, as these kinds of sensors enable warfighters to continue their mission, with minimized loss of efficiency during day and at night.

LWIR infrared is a subset of the infrared band of the electromagnetic spectrum, the radiant heat that uncooled thermal imaging cameras see.

The U.S. Army is surveying industry for high-resolution and wide-field-of-view longwave infrared sensors to replace or augment the Army’s fielded Driver’s Vision Enhancer (DVE) to help warfighters operate their vehicles safely at night and in degraded-visibility conditions.

According to a request for information (RFI), it is looking for electro-optics companies able to provide affordable and mature uncooled long-wave IR sensors with wide field of view (FOV), capable of providing high-definition video to support driving a military vehicle.

These sensors must be suitable for integration on Army ground combat vehicles.

The current infrared Driver’s Vision Enhancer (DVE) has a 640-by-480-pixel sensor and 40-by-30-degree field of view — much lower resolution than today’s state-of-the-art uncooled LWIR cameras that have resolutions as fine as 1920 by 1200 pixels, according to militaryaerospace.com.

Instead, Army researchers are trying to develop 360-degree situational awareness using high-definition long-wave IR cameras with resolutions of at least 1920 by 1200 pixels.