This Is What A Black Hawk Helicopter Looks Like Through The Army's New Night Vision Goggles

[Oxman]

This Is What A Black Hawk Helicopter Looks Like Through The Army's New Night Vision Goggles

New images shared online demonstrate the revolutionary capabilities of the Army's new Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binocular system.

www.thedrive.com

Video in link.

A picture shared online shows what a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk looks like through the U.S. Army’s newest night vision goggles, known as Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binoculars, or ENVG-Bs. The image shows the helicopter as viewed through a pair of ENVG-Bs in the so-called "outline" mode, which has brightly illuminated the edges on every surface of the aircraft. This setting is designed to make it easier for troops to quickly identify objects and highlights the revolutionary nature of these optics, which offer capabilities that previously seemed to be more in the realm of science fiction or video games.

The image was posted to Twitter by the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, more commonly referred to as simply “Lancer Brigade,” which is based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, or JLBM, in Washington State. The Tweet says the UH-60 belongs to the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, another unit at JBLM. The Lancer Brigade had also previously shared footage of exercises conducted over Seattle with the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, demonstrating the goggles’ ability to clearly and brightly outline objects against dark backgrounds.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

Half a billion bucks, right there.

Neat.

 

[Roger Roger]

That’s just an Instagram filter

 

[Low_Level_Hell]

Half a billion bucks, right there.

Neat.

I think they go for between 15-20K a pop. I had a chance to play with these prior to getting out and I will say any soldier that has a set of E-NVGs will have a tremendous advantage in very low to no illumination environments.

Problem with head mounted thermal imaging systems is you can't see through a windshield/glass so not very useful while operating a vehicle or aircraft.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

I think they go for between 15-20K a pop. I had a chance to play with these prior to getting out and I will say any soldier that has a set of E-NVGs will have a tremendous advantage in very low to no illumination environments.

Problem with head mounted thermal imaging systems is you can't see through a windshield/glass so not very useful while operating a vehicle or aircraft.

I was referring to the cost of the total program, which, as near as I can tell through casual investigation, is just shy of a half a billion dollars.

 

[Low_Level_Hell]

I was referring to the cost of the total program, which, as near as I can tell through casual investigation, is just shy of a half a billion dollars.

I gotcha. But for the military a half billion dollar defense program is a bargain.

 

[adk]

 

[stroboli62]

OPSEC???

Can see all the OPSEC folks going cray cray right about now

 

[Lawman]

OPSEC???

Can see all the OPSEC folks going cray cray right about now

Meh,

You’re getting nothing from this picture you can’t already see better versions of at any defense trade show.

The OPSEC comes from commercial security measures in sales of the systems. It’s why the FBI and other agencies get real interested in packages from certain manufacturers routing to certain locations.


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[MikeD]

Compared to the advances in technology of cellphones for example, from the 1980s until now; I’ve been expecting to see NVGs that are practically color HD televisions, rather than the black and white TV picture we have now, and even what we see here.

 

[Low_Level_Hell]

Compared to the advances in technology of cellphones for example, from the 1980s until now; I’ve been expecting to see NVGs that are practically color HD televisions, rather than the black and white TV picture we have now, and even what we see here.

I’ve been thinking that for a while. The Army is finally getting around to fielding white phosphor tubes but it’s just a retrofit on the existing NVGs that have been around 20 plus years.

 

[Roger Roger]

Compared to the advances in technology of cellphones for example, from the 1980s until now; I’ve been expecting to see NVGs that are practically color HD televisions, rather than the black and white TV picture we have now, and even what we see here.

I think the real tech investments are going toward just bypassing the human eye element and having a computer look at the data.

 

[Lawman]

I’ve been thinking that for a while. The Army is finally getting around to fielding white phosphor tubes but it’s just a retrofit on the existing NVGs that have been around 20 plus years.

The mind numbing aggravation as it was explained by a PM to me was essentially there is a problem with contracting and dollars. Essentially if X dollars forecast under contract as spent on long term sustainment not procurement they can’t be transferred to procure a new technology without going through a new line of congressional approval.

Which is why it takes so long to replace anything in a large scale procurement because sustainment dollars last for decades.


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[MikeD]

I’ve been thinking that for a while. The Army is finally getting around to fielding white phosphor tubes but it’s just a retrofit on the existing NVGs that have been around 20 plus years.

we have half and half green and the new white ones. Each seems to have its pluses and minuses. That’s said, I’ve tried the four tube ones and hated them.

I think the real tech investments are going toward just bypassing the human eye element and having a computer look at the data.

Hadn’t thought of that, but that’s an interesting point indeed.

 

[BobDDuck]

 

[Richman]

Hmmm. Gives me a Mechwarrior 2 vibe…

 

[Lawman]

Hmmm. Gives me a Mechwarrior 2 vibe…

I got to play with the degraded visual environment system (DVEPs). It was almost like playing an Atari 2600 meets Tron of a flight simulator. The refresh on it is very good though so once you get over the distinct lack of graphical detail it feels very smooth to use.


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[Minuteman]

What's the battery life is like?

A while back nvidia (I think?) was exploring the option of

1. take the local video stream from a user's webcam
2. use some compute to convert it into a 3D model with texture maps etc.
3. send that data out over the network, which would use much less bandwidth than, say, a h.264 stream
4. render the 3d model on other meeting participants' screens to have the appearance of a webcam view

So I wonder when a whole squad's ENVGs will be networked to share sensor data to be rendered. And what that will do to the battery life.

 

[Richman]

I got to play with the degraded visual environment system (DVEPs). It was almost like playing an Atari 2600 meets Tron of a flight simulator. The refresh on it is very good though so once you get over the distinct lack of graphical detail it feels very smooth to use.


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I’ve recently gotten back into Battletech/Mechwarrior. I needed an activity with a mythos less depressing than Warhammer 40K….a low bar, I grant you.

 

[Lawman]

I’ve recently gotten back into Battletech/Mechwarrior. I needed an activity with a mythos less depressing than Warhammer 40K….a low bar, I grant you.

4 was the best. Atlas mechs are a bitch move.

Fight me!


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