ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md., 16 Feb. 2011. The U.S. Army is ordering 21,877 thermal weapon sights from three U.S. military electro-optics companies in contracts worth $194.9 million, announced Tuesday. Awarding the contracts were officials of the Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.The Raytheon Co. (NYSE:RTN) Combat Systems segment in McKinney, Texas, won a $68.7 million contract to provide 9,001 thermal weapon sights, the DRS Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DRS) Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition (RSTA) unit in Palm Bay, Fla., won a $68.2 million contract to provide 6,876 thermal weapon sights, and the BAE Systems (LSE:BA) Electronic Solutions segment in Belcamp, Md., won a $58 million contract to provide 6,000 thermal weapon systems./>The Army's thermal weapon sight (TWS) is designed to be a low-cost, high-performance, rugged portable infrared sensor for light, medium, and heavy weapon applications. The TWS enables individual and crew-served weapons gunners to see deep into the battlefield to enhance surveillance and target acquisition ranges.