If gunners in T-72 Main Battle Tanks of the Indian Army are thanking their stars for improved night vision, it has a Bengaluru connection. A city-based company is upgrading the tank’s ability to identify targets up to three kilometres at night.
Col. H.S. Shankar (Retd.), Chairman and Managing Director of Alpha Design Technologies (ADT), told The Hindu , “Hitherto, the Russian-made T-72 had night vision range of 300 metres.”
ADT is the offset partner of Israeli company Elop-Elbit, which has won the contract for T-72 upgradation. “We started fitting Thermal Imager Fire Control Systems (TIFCS) in November 2014. So far, 170 kits have been supplied to the army,” he said adding the night vision technology will be fitted in 1,000 T-72s over the next one year.
The company is also the offset partner in the Indian Army’s infantry command vehicle upgradation. It has already supplied 300 thermal imager standalone kits (TISK), which improves night vision for main gun firing and also missiles. By September this year, 969 vehicles would be upgraded, he said.
Both TIFCS and TISK are on display at Aero India 2015.
