PARSIPPANY, N.J., May 18 (UPI) -- DRS Technologies said Thursday it had received a $39 million order for its Thermal Weapon Sights (TWS II) from the U.S. Army.
The devices are used on a wide variety of Army small arms including M-16 rifles, rocket launchers, machine guns and sniper weapons.
Fred Marion, president of DRS Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group, said the sights were "optimized to place increased lethality in the hands of individual warfighters."
The TWS II sights are based on microbolometer-based infrared technology that allows production of smaller night-vision devices that provide sharper imagery for troops operating in the dark or in other vision-obscuring conditions.
The devices have become standard issue for most combat troops in Iraq, allowing them to not only spot the enemy in dark but keep track of their fellow soldiers and move through the streets in more-dispersed patterns that make them less vulnerable to a bomb or sniper.
Thursday's order comes under a five-year contract awarded in 2004 and calls for the light, medium and heavy sights produced under the New Jersey company's TWS II program.
Production will take place at DRS plants in Dallas, Florida and Southern California with deliveries beginning in November and running through December 2007.
