Army to get J-TAS laser vision

From 2009 frontline troops will be equipped with a state-of-the-art "target locator system". The £30million contract to supply 700 of its new Joint-Target Acquisition Systems (J-TAS) has just been awarded to Thales UK. J-TAS has been designed to meet the MoD’s Surveillance System and Range Finding (SSARF) requirement and will enable a soldier to pinpoint the exact location of the enemy and call in the most appropriate firepower to deal with the situation, whatever the weather and at whatever the time day or night.
J-TAS is the size of a large pair of binoculars, weighs 3.6 kilograms and has a range of over 5 kilometers. It combines daylight and thermal vision with a laser range finder, embedded military Global Positioning System and azimuth angular referencing.

Des says: "The ability to see and target accurately at night gives our troops on operations a boost to their capabilities. This will help deliver more effective use of firepower and save lives."

In an article in The Sun Sergeant Richard Bennett, of 3 Rifles artillery battalion, which is to deploy to Afghanistan later this year, said: “The stuff we’ve got just now is quite dated — from the 80s. Seeing this, it’s going to fill that gap quite well. It’s going to take a lot of the guesswork, old-style map and compass, out of the equation and it’s lighter and smaller. It will also speed things up, as with a map and compass you’ve got to be precise and it takes time to get it right. With this you just press and click, get the information and get it over the net as soon as you can. Hopefully it will save lives. It is a vital piece of equipment.”

No excuses for missing the target in future, then.

Link> MoD: Forces to get new enemy target locator
Link> Thales: Thales wins UK target locator system competition