'Owning the night' means fusing sensors: night-vision goggles designed for next-generation information-centric force.

The U.S. Army is testing a new generation of night-vision goggles that would let soldiers see through smoke and dust, in complete darkness. The technology required for these goggles already is available, but both Army officials and manufacturers are not sure how long it will take to produce "combat-proof" devices, or whether the service will be able to afford them.

At least two programs are under way today to develop next-generation night-vision goggles.

One of them aims to combine traditional night-vision technology, called image intensification, with thermal sensors. Image intensification amplifies non-visible particles of light to a level of brightness that the human eye can detect. A thermal, or infrared, imager senses the temperature differences and warmer items appear brighter on a display.

The fusion of both technologies would result in night-vision goggles that merge the strengths of image intensification--a clear, sharp green-tinted picture--with the advantages of infrared--the ability to see practically under any environmental condition. Green is the color that the human eye sees most easily.

Secondly, another night-vision goggle program--spearheaded by the U.S. Air Force--would provide military aviators with panoramic, wide-view goggles. Unlike conventional devices that restrict the pilot's side-view to a 40-degree angle, the panoramic goggles come with a 100-degree field of view. The Air Force plans to start buying these goggles next year, but their price tag makes it unlikely that they will be available in large quantities in the foreseeable future.

The Army is considering buying the panoramic goggles, but it has made no financial commitment yet.

A higher priority for the service today is to develop the "sensor-fusion" goggles, said Lt. Col. Cindy Bedell, the Army's product manager for soldier sensors. The combined image-intensification and infrared goggle is known as ENVG (enhanced night-vision goggle).

The Army wants to be able to field these as soon as possible, she told National Defense, because they potentially could translate into a huge battlefield advantage for U.S. soldiers. With current goggles, "you can't see in over-cast starlight [conditions] and down," she said. At lower light levels, "the range and quality are degraded."

The ENVG, if developed successfully, would be fielded to infantry troops, military police, traffic controllers, surveillance units and any force likely to engage in urban combat, Bedell said. The infrared sensor is needed to see through the glare of city lights. Under such conditions, the image-intensification tubes get overloaded, creating a "halo" effect that makes it difficult to see.

The Army is evaluating three ENVG prototypes, each developed by ITT Industries, Northrop Grumman Corp. and Insight Technology Inc.

The service has not yet decided which of the three prototypes it will buy, if any. "We haven't finalized the acquisition strategy," said Bedell. All three designs are being tested this fall, she said. The tests are not under normal battlefield conditions, she explained, because the prototype goggles aren't "hardened" enough. "We'll only give them to soldiers who will treat them relatively carefully."

One problem that Bedell noticed in the ENVGs was the poor alignment of the optics, when the thermal images were overlaid with the image-intensification images. The contractors, she said, "are having difficulty in getting the alignment." But the Army expects that problem will be fixed in due time, Bedell said.

The more important issue they must address now is the design. The optic assemblies in the prototypes are too heavy, for example, she said. That can be problematic when "you have this hanging off your head."

One way to lower the weight of the ENVGs will be to switch to smaller image-intensification tubes, said Jim Harris, vice president of ITT Night Vision, in Roanoke, Va. Current goggles have image intensifier tubes that are 18 mm in diameter. In the future, the Army would like to see 16-mm devices, he told reporters visiting the company's manufacturing plant this summer.

Producing the smaller tube is no small feat, given the complexity of the manufacturing process. Each 18-mm tube crafted today at ITT requires 400 manufacturing steps, said Vince Thomas, vice president of operations. For the ENVG program, ITT partnered with the Raytheon Co., which makes the infrared sensor.

The Army has not yet settled on whether the ENVGs will have a monocular or binocular design. "There is no final decision on that," said Bedell.

Even if the Army ends up buying the ENVG, not every soldier will get one, she noted. They will be assigned to selected units, since they are probably too expensive for the Army to buy in mass quantities, she added.

The service has about 300,000 night-vision goggles in the inventory today, even though the official Army requirement is 416,000.

While the standard Army goggles cost about $2,500 a piece, the ENVG will be at least $8,000. That unit price, however, is based on a large production run. The prototypes are much more expensive. Bedell recalled that the first iteration of the Army night-vision goggle cost $15,000 each.

Power Supply

One of the technical challenges in the ENVG program is the power supply. The current models are battery operated. "We are looking at the logistics of batteries," she said. "We are exploring options."

Conventional goggles can run 50-60 hours on two AA batteries, but as the Army adds more electronics, the power requirements can surge dramatically, said Harris. "When you start adding infrared detectors, you need more battery capability." In the future, he said, "We are going to rely on fuel-cell technology."

A second option proposed by ITT for the ENVG program is a "higher risk" technology called DOE (defractive optical element) relay system, said Harris. Rather than placing the sensor in front of the eyes, the DOE system moves the sensor to the side of the head. "We use a relay optical lens to present the image to the eye," he added. "The performance of DOE is not as good as [the original ENVG prototype], but it's a radical concept we wanted to try."

Regardless of which ENVG system it picks, "the Army really wants to go to fusion," said Harris. This program, he said, "will be our first entree into the fusion business."

In the long term, the company is anticipating opportunities for new technology development, as the Army moves forward with the futuristic soldier-modernization program called the Objective Force Warrior. The goggles for the OFW would take sensor fusion to the next technological milestone--where soldiers would be able to transmit images from their goggles to the command center, Harris explained. These goggles could be available by 2010, if the Army decides that it wants that technology.

ITT is spending about $3 million a year on new technology for the Army's next generation of night-vision goggles, said Harris. Among the company-funded systems is a so-called "video ENVG."

In a video-goggle, the image would be converted into an electronic signal and presented on a head-mounted display in front of the soldier's eye. "The government is not sure whether this will be an improvement. So we are spending our dollars on this development," Harris said.

One technical hurdle in the project is the availability of small, high-resolution displays, he noted. "We typically have a pixel count on our camera of 1280x1024. They are just now starting to make displays at that pixel count."

Bedell, the Army's project manager, seemed skeptical of the video-ENVG. "That technology has not been miniaturized," she said. The Army has deployed a comparable technology, in the form of the Lightweight Video Reconnaissance system, a tripod-mounted sensor (made by the Raytheon Co.) that can take night or day images, condense them into code packages that can be sent over a secure radio. The U.S. special operations forces are the heaviest users of the LVRS system, said Bedell. In the future, she said, that technology should be made "smaller and more integrated, so you can pick the image you need to use, for the conditions you are in."

The technology that helps to convert images into electronic signals comes from a small company that ITT acquired in August, Xybion Electronic Systems, in San Diego, Calif. The firm specializes in video electronics engineering. Xybion's key technology is a miniature CMOS (complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor) camera, which can be described as a "camera-on-a-chip" electronic imager, said Harris.

"Right now, we bond the CMOS detector to the screen," he said. "We are working on new technology where actually remove the screen and put the CMOS detector inside the tube."

As to whether the ENVG would be adapted for aviators, Bedell said that the Army still is undecided. "The question is, how important is that forward-looking infrared [FLIR] to a pilot? Does he need that information for flying?" Those answers likely will come from the Army's aviation school, in Fort Rucker, Ala.

Panoramic Goggles

The Air Force program office for air combat, meanwhile, is conducting a separate competition for the production of the panoramic night-vision goggles, which come with four tubes. Regular goggles have two tubes. The Air Force Research Lab, at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, developed the original goggle design and proved its performance in various tests during the past several years.

These goggles do not feature sensor fusion. But instead of using the Army's standard 18-mm image-intensification tubes, the Air Force requested 16-mm tubes, which ITT is producing in low quantities.

The smaller tube was designed to keep the weight of the panoramic goggle as low as possible.

"The 16-mm tube will allow products to be much lighter," said Harris. He claims that only ITT can make those tubes today.

The only other U.S. manufacturer of image-intensification tubes, Northrop Grumman Corp., declined to answer questions from National Defense about their ongoing military night-vision programs.

An Air Force spokesman at Wright Patterson Air Force Base could nor provide details on the panoramic goggle competition, other than an expected contract award date, sometime in October or November.

The two competitors vying for the panoramic night-vision goggle award are Insight Technology, of Londonberry, N.H., and Vision Systems International, based in San Jose, Calif. ITT would supply the 16-mm tubes to the winning team.

The Air Force budgeted $2.9 million in fiscal year 2003 for development and low-rate production of up to 20 panoramic goggles. Once in production, each would cost about $50,000.

The Army, said an industry source, is choosing to "wait and see" before it makes any purchasing decisions.

This source also said that the Air Force was considering awarding Northrop Grumman a contract to speed up the manufacturing of 16-mm tubes. "Northrop Grumman is about a year behind developing the 16mm tubes," the source said. There is concern within the military services that having only one supplier of tubes would make it difficult to keep prices competitive.

That same rationale drove the Army to split its latest night-vision goggle procurement for ground troops between ITT (60 percent) and Northrop Grumman (40 percent). ITT got 100 percent of the aviation procurement award. The entire procurement, called Omnibus VI, could be worth up to $450 million.

Vision Systems International, a joint venture of Rockwell Collins and Elbit, is the manufacturer of the next-generation air-combat helmet, the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System. For the panoramic night-vision goggle contract, VSI teamed with Kollsman Corp.

The integration of the night-vision goggles with the JHMCS is a key requirement in the program, said Louis M. Taddeo, director of business development for VSI.

The JHMCS is a "look and shoot" helmet that employs the pilot's eyes to aim weapons and enables "over-the-shoulder engagements." It can be reconfigured with day or night sensors, including the panoramic goggles, said Taddeo.

He noted that VSI has supplied panoramic night-vision goggles to both the Navy and the Air Force, for testing. Although both services would use the same technology, each has different priorities, Taddeo explained.

The Navy is testing the goggles on pilots flying the F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and F/A-18C/D Hornets. "The Navy is focusing on the JHMCS integration with the panoramic night-vision goggle," he said. "The Air Force is more focused on non-JHMCS aircraft," such as transports and tankers.