Night Vision USA

Shephard Night Vision
11 - 12 October 2005
The Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, USA

KEYNOTE ADDRESS:
Edward Bair, Programme Executive Officer, Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors, US Army, USA
CHAIRMEN:
Dr Donald A Reago, Principal Deputy for Technology and Countermine, US Army RDECOM, CERDEC, NVESD
Professor Damien McDonnell, Chief Executive, Defence Diversification Agency, UK
Focus:
With the on-going operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as homeland security challenges, the workload on military forces, police and civil emergency response organisations is unrelenting. Night vision and electro-optical technologies are central to these organisations' ability to respond around the clock to threats and challenges.
Night Vision 2005 will highlight fresh operational experience from around the world presented by speakers from air, land and maritime forces engaged in activities as varied as urban warfare, air-to-air combat training, maritime patrol and littoral disaster relief. Speakers will focus on what worked well, as well as what lessons they have drawn from their experiences. The challenges of assessing equipment and getting it into the hands of operators in a timely manner will be examined, as will the latest developments in night vision technology, and the simulation and training systems vital to getting the most benefit from it.
Shephard's Night Vision Conference and Exhibition, now in its 14th year, has fully established itself internationally as a unique opportunity for the night vision community to meet, network and do business. Delegates attracted from many nations and disciplines will be exposed to the latest thinking in military, para-military and civilian organisations on how they can benefit from evolving night vision technologies and the challenges that must be met along the way.
Session One – Operational experience
Session Two – Delivering NV capability
Session Three – Contemporary rquirements
Session Four - Leveraging civil technology for defence & homeland security applications
Session Five– Future technology and developments
Night Vision 2004 Show Review
Industry Glances Through the Eyes of the Warfighter: Night Vision 2004
(Source: Frost & Sullivan; issued 7 December, 2004)
This year’s Night Vision 2004 conference started off with a bang as image-intensified and thermally-imaged gun camera footage of Baghdad’s ‘Ambush Alley’ and RAF air operations over al-Samarra brought industry representatives a fresh view of the challenges inherent for airborne strike packages in Iraq’s MOUT-FIBUA environment. In a civilian-populated urban warfare environment this can be lethal. The ‘blooming effect’ of non-NVD compliant anti-collision and navigational lights on air-to-air refuelling tankers as well as streetlights, domestic lighting and shops reduce the ability of air personnel to positively identify and engage hostiles. Blooming and FLIR limitations were not only on the minds of air personnel – US Army Colonel Wade Jost and UK Army Major Simon Nias spoke of the need for a one-to-one night vision capability.
From the US side, the need to have all troops trained in night-fighting was only augmented by the need for more advanced, higher-resolution monocular and binocular devices. Operations analysis of MOUT-FIBUA combat has indicated that to positively identify and engage hostiles, greater resolution is needed. While this is QED from the first Gulf War, current sensor fusion technology may make this a reality. ITT’s ENVG is one of a small number of fused I2/TI devices. While this technology is available at the platform sensor level, it is not yet feasible to lower the costs from some $16,500 to the $1,300-$1,500 range of the AN/PVS-14 commonly used by US Forces. Currently, for instance, the UK is hampered in its deployment capability as the armoured brigade’s worth of night vision devices (NVD) in Iraq is only now being replaced with ruggardised, military-standard kit. As this equipment is rotated, it will need to be repaired and brought up to MOD standard, thus removing a large number of NVD units from service. This poses a significant problem as UK policy undertakes an ever-larger number of deployment situations, all of which require the ability to effectively operate in a nocturnal environment.
Polemically, such a reduction in price would only come with substantial uptake by cost-sensitive military procurement agencies. Like a dog chasing its tail, this logic gets nowhere fast. Thus, crystal ball-gazing industry professionals and procurement officers would be warned of the risks of investing in this technology. One solution advocated by DEP’s Jan van Spyker is the effective standardisation through industrialisation of core technological components. By creating such a ‘core’ or ‘trunk’, industry would be able to invest such savings in experimental fusion technology. Industrial cooperation in the NATO/EU area does make sense, however it may not be able to offer effective alternatives to cost issues or provide a sufficiently tailored solution to MOD requirements. Sweden, for instance, operates in effective co-determination with Insight Technology, as operations in the far north are complicated by high levels of ambient atmospheric electromagnetic activity (ie, the aurora borealis). By creating such a dynamic feedback loop, the Swedish MOD and Insight Technology benefit from the experience and lessons learned from northern operations and can thus tailor NVD resolution to the environment. Another solution is simply supplying enhanced Gen II tubes from a country with lower production costs. Thus Canada’s Newcon Optik incorporates Russian technology into its product under a special licensing agreement with Rosobronexport. This may prove an intriguing proposition for forces whose financial constraints clash with their doctrinal requirements. Although MODs are obviously keen on sustaining local industry, the combination of domestically produced image intensifiers with imported tubes should more than pique the interest of the cost-conscious procurement officer.
Thus drivers and restraints for NVD acquisition since 1991 are very much unchanged, however Night Vision 2004 has allowed military end-users to throw down the gauntlet to industry for economical NVD solutions. The major restraint for MODs' procurement of leading-edge NVDs remains cost. If smaller producers want to survive, costs will need to decline. Thus the question remains how industry will respond – by cooperation, co-determination or component substitution.

Shephard is pleased that this event attracted high-quality visitors and speakers and expects to build on this strength when the 2005 event takes place.

The 2005 event is Night Vision USA and will be held on 10 - 12 October in Baltimore, USA