TAMPA, Fla. — Special operators are looking for serious upgrades to their glasses and weapon optics.
Acquisition experts for the U.S. Special Operations Command described current projects including day/night heads-up displays here at the Special Operations Forces Weekly conference.
“Think of it like Google Glass,” said Lt. Col. Tosh Lancaster, program executive officer for USSOCOM's lethality program.
The bulletproof glasses feature augmented reality and beam information into the user's field of vision, potentially allowing them to be used during the day. However, it can also be combined with existing night vision equipment.
Lancaster said that the command is interested in displaying only the data that is needed at the moment, and that the display should be configurable.
“We want to give them the right information on the tactical edge that has already been analyzed so they can make quick decisions about where they are,” the officer added.
The Army has been working on the Integrated Vision Augmentation System since 2019. The $22 billion program's devices are scheduled for final testing this year. It is a helmet-mounted device that combines thermal, night vision, and augmented reality capabilities.
However, the ideal glasses for special surgery would be a single, much lighter item that combines eye protection and information display.
Lancaster also discussed digital projection close-up sights, short-range weapon optics. This eliminates the need for mechanical aiming of the weapon's optics. If successful, Lancaster said the new optics would eliminate “thermal drift.” This is a technical issue in which the point of aim of a holographic sight can be shifted by as much as a foot from the target due to temperature.
Also in the eyewear space, Adam Fields, USSOCOM's protection and integration program director, asked the industry for a “magic lens” that would solve many of the vision device problems for operators. Preferred lenses provide ballistic and laser protection, as well as a transition from clear for indoor or nighttime use to tinted lenses for daytime use.
That way, someone with a big bag full of lenses won't be like, “Wait a minute, I'm going outside and I have to change my lenses to smoke lenses.'' ” Fields said. ”
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government, and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for his co-authored project on witness intimidation. Todd is a veteran of the Iraq War.