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Soldiers

Enhanced Night Vision Goggle III and Family of Weapon Sights - Individual: Revolutionizing Battlefield Imagery and Firing Positions

Strategic Insights

— 2 min read

The Enhanced Night Vision Goggle III (ENVG III) and the Family of Weapon Sights - Individual (FWS-I) are revolutionary systems that promise to improve the image of the battlefield and provide Soldiers with enhanced situational awareness. By wirelessly linking the FWS-I to the ENVG III, Soldiers can accurately fire their weapons without having to bring the weapon up to eye level, reducing the risk of defilade and increasing their effectiveness on the battlefield. The systems have undergone rigorous scrutiny by Soldiers at various installations and training areas during live-fire events, with continuous refinement of tactics, techniques, and procedures by the Maneuver Center of Excellence and the Army Training and Doctrine Command.

Key Takeaways:

  • The ENVG III and FWS-I systems are designed to provide Soldiers with enhanced situational awareness and improved target acquisition capabilities on the battlefield.
  • The FWS-I uses just four batteries instead of eight, is much lighter and smaller than earlier thermal weapons sights, and has a more ergonomically friendly set of control buttons.
  • The ENVG III contains a "smart battery pack" connected from the sensors in the front of the helmet to the back of the helmet, which merges the image from the FWS-I with the ENVG III image.
  • The ENVG III can allow Soldiers to see both thermal and night vision imagery at the same time, providing a benefit of thermal imagery that can detect the heat signature of a target in visually degraded environments.
  • The systems have undergone rigorous testing by Soldiers, with continuous refinement of tactics, techniques, and procedures to ensure safe and effective employment.
  • The procurement process for the systems includes competitive bidding and the use of existing night vision image intensification tubes, resulting in significant cost savings.
  • The Army plans to equip 18 Soldiers per platoon with FWS-I and 24 Soldiers per platoon with ENVG III.
  • The first units to receive the new kit will be brigade combat teams.

Statistics:

  • The ENVG III and FWS-I systems have a 40-degree view, providing much greater situational awareness than the 18- to 26-degree view provided by the scope of the weapon.
  • The systems can resolve images further away than traditional thermal weapons sights, with targets being clearly seen past 1,000 meters.
  • The reason it was designed to pull in images from further away is so it could be used with the M249, which has a much greater maximum effective range than the M4.
  • The ENVG III contains a small computer processor, which merges the image from the FWS-I with the ENVG III image.
  • The systems have been developed through a collaborative effort between the Army, MCOE, the Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate, and the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center.

Sources:

  • David Vergun, "New Night-Vision Equipment Promises Enhanced Image of the Battlefield," U.S. Army, July 22.
  • Col. Michael Sloane, "Project Manager for Soldier Sensors and Lasers," U.S. Army, July 22.
  • Lt. Col. Timothy Fuller, "Program Manager for Soldier Maneuver Sensors," U.S. Army, July 22.
  • Phil Cheatum, "MCOE's Soldier Requirements Division," U.S. Army, July 22.

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