LandWarfareIntl
Marine West: Marines prepare for AN/PAS-28 deliveries
The US Marine Corps will soon begin receiving deliveries of its new AN/PAS-28 Medium Range Thermal Biocular.
‘The only two military departments that have a thermal bino requirement are [United States Special Operations Command] and the Marine Corps,’ explained Allen Horman, who works with Advanced Sighting System Products at ELCAN. ‘In the case of the Marine Corps, we received an IDIQ [indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract] for 10,000 units.’
In late January 2009, Raytheon Network Centric Systems (NCS) announced that ELCAN Optical Technologies (a Raytheon Company) had received a $180 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract for the procurement, delivery, maintenance, and logistical support of the Medium Range Thermal Bi-Ocular (MRTB).
The announcement noted that the Marines’ MRTB would be ‘based on the battle proven ELCAN commercial off-the-shelf PhantomIR. The USMC MRTB features product upgrades including the latest RVS microbolometer detector technology (640x480 25 micrometer), dual-mode (Class I and IIIB) infrared laser marker, image & video recording capability (JPEG and MPEG-4), and high quality infrared and visible optics providing extended range performance.’
The aluminum housing surrounded by rubber armor measures 12.7 inches (long) x 7 inches (wide) x 3.5 inchs (high) and weights less than 3.6 lbs. (1.6 kg) with batteries. Four AA lithium batteries provide more than 7 hours of operation at 25 degrees C.
In marking the January 2009 award and the system’s enhanced capabilities, Mike Allgeier NCS vice president, Operations and Precision Components, observed, ‘This win will give the Marines our next generation model, the PhantomIRxr, incorporating state-of-the-art uncooled detector technology, additional functionality and lessons learned during combat operations,’ said ‘This product will give our Marines a decided advantage on the battlefield. Raytheon is proud to support the Marine Corps with this new capability.’
2 X magnification and FOV (wide) of 12 degrees x 9 degrees provide the system with a 70 percent probability of detecting a moving man-sized object (1.5 meters x .5 meters) at ranges greater than 2,200 meters and a vehicle-sized object (2.89 meters x 2.89 meters) at ranges greater than 5,000 meters.
According to Horman, he brought one of the units out to Marine West ‘to show the Marines in the units what they will be getting. And some of them didn’t even know they were getting it, saying, ‘Whoa, we’ve got a thermal bino coming out?’ And they are excited to get these units coming out to them.’
One possible source of confusion involves the currently fielded AN/PAS-25 thermal laser spot imager.
‘The PAS-25 is really for longer range – 5 kilometers and out,’ Horman noted. ‘And they wanted the AN/PAS-28 for 500 meters – 2,000 meters. So this is lighter weight than the ‘PAS-25.’ It’s something that they can carry around with them.’
By Scott R. Gourley, Camp Pendleton, California
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