Elbit Systems To Supply BrightNite Systems To NATO Country

Elbit Systems has won a $17 million contract to supply multi spectral BrightNite system that enables helicopter pilots to fly in a Degraded Visual Environment (DVE) and during more than 90 per cent of the night, to an air force in a NATO country.

The contract will be performed over a thirty-month period, the company announced today.

Lightweight, compact and cost-effective, BrightNite is a multi-spectral end to end panoramic piloting solution that delivers the landscape scenery directly to both eyes of the pilot, including 2D flight Symbology and 3D mission symbology, enabling intuitive head-up eyes-out orientation flight in pitch dark and other low visibility landing conditions, including Elbit Systems’ unique brownout symbology.

The scenery picture is driven from the multi-spectral sensor which fused multiple day and night cameras into one crystal clear very intuitive piloting picture regardless of outer light conditions.

Bezhalel (Butzi) Machlis, President and CEO of Elbit Systems commented, “this contract 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 solution is suitable for a variety of missions such as Special Forces and search and rescue.

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 environments (DVE) conditions, apart from the already heavy workload.

Prior to BrightNite, flight crews have 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).