Four companies have secured other transaction agreements to explore the possibility of creating a single, lightweight, man-portable system for the U.S. Marine Corps to locate, acquire and counter targets.
BAE Systems, Elbit Systems of America (Nasdaq: ESLT), Fraser Optics and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) will examine potential systems for USMC’s Next Generation Handheld Targeting System, the military service said Thursday.
“We will collect the findings by the second quarter of fiscal year 2019 and choose one or more vendors to move onto phase two where they will develop and demonstrate prototypes,” said Megan Full, a USMC contract specialist.
Contractors will work to determine NGHTS’ possible ergonomic features for forward deployed, foot mobile users and examine if such technology has potential to integrate with version 2 of the Target Handoff System.
They will also study the application of the system in target recognition, location and designation ranges; technological maturity, manufacturability and value engineering; and sustainability at the operational user level.
