Leonardo has received a contract from the United States Army to provide thermal Integrated Vision Systems for Assault Breacher Vehicles (ABV) for the ADF in a $9.6 million FMS contract.
The DRS Integrated Vision Systems (IVS) combines uncooled thermal technology into a small two-axis stabilised gimbal in addition to DRS’ Enhanced Situation Awareness camera system. When the ABV is equipped with IVS it allows operators to remain under armour while conducting their mission with maximum visual awareness around the vehicle.
“We are very excited to provide our Australian allies with this advanced thermal sighting technology that allows users to be protected inside an armored vehicle while giving them visual situational awareness outside during combat missions,” said Jerry Hathaway, senior vice president and general manager of the DRS Electro-Optical and Infrared Systems (EOIS) business unit.
The ABV IVS program is in mature production, with 220 systems delivered to the US Army and Marine Corps between 2007 and 2022.
Army will receive up to 75 M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams tanks, 29 M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicles, 17 M1074 Joint Assault Bridge Vehicles and an additional six M88A2 Armoured Recovery Vehicles under the Main Battle Tank Upgrade (Land 907 Phase 2) and Combat Engineering Vehicle (Land 8160 Phase 1) projects.