Future of Clip-On Weapon Sights - Pros Cons from an Applications Perspective

摘要

Weapon Sights continue to decrease in size, weight, and power, improving the covertness, ease of use and overall cost. With this, power consumption further enables the use of longer run times and ancillary accessory equipment. With lower power consumption, the cost of internal cabling, switches and total cost of ownership (including maintenance) is reduced. These trends will continue to experience broader adoption. In today's dangerous and uncertain global environment, the need and desire for increased Clip-On weapon sights is growing and will remain a daily part of our military, para-military and first responder "tool-box" of sensor technology and equipment. This paper has shown the power of visible, 12, passive thermal & fused imaging technology compared and contrasted with other Clip-On weapon sight options. Passive thermal, 12 and DVO each have unique operational advantages under different conditions, including detection at long ranges in all weather conditions, through foliage, shrubbery and in day and nighttime shadows. The recent hyper-growth of smart weapons leads us to believe that the Weapon Sight market, to a degree, will track the IP video surveillance market using industry standardized cloud-based VMS clients with intelligent analytics with more value added surveillance information being more secure, affordable and highly reliable. It is important to remember that no one wavelength technology will provide a complete Weapon Sight Warrior solution. The "clip on" approach allows a varied response to conditions requiring additional capability again without disturbing the basic weapon platform War Fighters and para-military first responders need to successfully complete their mission. To reiterate, War Fighters and para-military first responders need to understand and choose the right sensor technology for the right application and to know which sensor technology works best for which application and then choose it based on their mission requirements.