Posted by Courtney Howard
COSTA MESA, Calif., 12 Feb. 2010. Irvine Sensors Corp. of Costa Mesa, Calif., won an order from Optics 1 Inc., an optical systems designer and manufacturer in Manchester, N.H., for Clip-On Thermal Imager (COTI) systems to be built under a $37.8 million contract awarded to Optics 1 by the Naval Surface Warfare Center of Crane, Ind.
The COTIs to be delivered under the new contract are intended for use by special operations forces. Irvine Sensors will act as a subcontractor supplying thermal imagers to Optics 1.
John Carson, Irvine Sensors' CEO, says: "Once the required delivery schedules of the government customer are fully known, we expect that the amount of our subcontract will ultimately exceed $18 million in support of this job."
Irvine Sensors and Optics 1 have been jointly developing the COTI over the last several years under government sponsorship, based on technology originally conceived by Irvine Sensors.
The COTI has been designed to clip onto existing military night-vision goggles and provide users with thermal images to complement the amplified low-light images that goggles can currently provide. Such dual capability has been long sought by the military and is intended to enhance imagery obtainable from the existing night vision goggles and provide images in circumstances where physical barriers, atmospheric conditions, or lack of light limit the effectiveness of the existing goggles.
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