Article Posted on : - May 27, 2010

A File Photo.

AKRON (BNS): US defence major Lockheed Martin has received a $3.93 million contract to develop a rifle-scope attachment to enhance soldiers’ marksmanship capabilities for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The Dynamic Image Gunsight Optic or DInGO system will enhance soldiers’ ability to accurately hit targets at a range between 3 to 600 meters. It enable soldiers to accurately view targets at varying distances without changing scopes or suffering a decrease in optical resolution.

“Current scopes are optimised for a single target range, impacting soldiers’ effectiveness and survivability when engaging targets at different distances during a single mission, DInGO will solve this problem, significantly increasing soldiers’ ability to rapidly reconfigure optics for use from short to long ranges and improving marksmanship capabilities for all soldiers,” Dan Schultz, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Mission Systems & Sensors Ship & Aviation Systems business, said in a company news release.

The DInGO automatically calculates the range with a low power laser rangefinder, digitally zooms in on it and accounts for environmental conditions such as wind using sensors built into the scope. It then projects the bullet’s point-of-impact calculated from the embedded ballistics computer.

DInGO is based on Lockheed Martin’s One Shot Advanced Sighting System, which utilises similar precision engagement technology to automatically transmit crosswind information to a long-range sniper’s scope and modify the crosshairs to display exactly where the bullet will strike.

According to the release, in 2008, Lockheed martin has built the One Shot’s new crosswind measurement technology for DRPA under a $9.7 million contract for 18 months, which was integrated into a prototype spotter scope – a small telescope that is carried by sniper teams and is used to bring far-away objects into close view.

During tactical field tests in December 2009, snipers were able to engage targets twice as quickly and increase their probability of a first-round hit by a factor of two using the One Shot technology at distances beyond 1,000 meters.

The nine-month Phase-1 contract (with options for additional phases), calls for Lockheed Martin to develop the DInGO system to use it on the M-4 and M-16 automatic rifles.

Lockheed Martin will manufacture Dynamic Image Gunsight Optic or DInGO system at its Akron and Ohio site simultaneously.