Long-range night vision goggles for islands made in Vietnam

The Ministry of National Defense has successfully designed technology to mass produce long-range night vision goggles, contributing to improving the effectiveness of night combat for troops at sea.

Illustration photo

Currently, the forces on duty to patrol and protect the sea and islands of the Fatherland and the anti-smuggling patrol units, Border Guards... face many difficulties in patrolling and controlling at night.

Based on that practical need, Enterprise 23, Unit Z199, General Department of Defense Industry under the Ministry of Defense has successfully designed the technology to mass produce long-range night vision goggles, contributing to improving the effectiveness of night combat for troops at sea. This is the project that won the First Prize of Vifotec in 2016 in the field of mechanical automation.

Useful solution

In the world, long-range night observation equipment has been strongly developed in developed countries and is strongly applied in remote observation and intrusion detection missions to protect important targets such as ports, coasts, borders, islands... These systems can be placed on observation stations along with daytime observation systems or can also be placed separately and mobile to ensure elements of secrecy and surprise.

For our country, research on the field of night vision only began after the war against the US in 1975. However, due to economic conditions just after the war, there were many difficulties, so at first, the research only stopped at the survey level.

Since the 90s, this research field has been officially focused on and directed for development by the Ministry of National Defense. There are many units inside and outside the military researching the field of night vision goggles, but the night vision goggles products only stop at the level of observation under 1.5 km for tank targets or have a longer observation range but only at the theoretical or schematic level.

Currently, there is no domestic unit that has systematically researched from design to technology to manufacture night observation equipment with long-range vision and the ability to withstand harsh environments to serve forces on duty in sea and island areas.

Based on theoretical knowledge combined with experiments and experience in researching, designing and manufacturing night-time observation and shooting equipment, according to the principle of amplifying dim light with the farthest target detection range (up to 3 km for upright human targets) and able to withstand the harsh climate of the sea and island environment, the research team of Enterprise 23, Unit Z19 has designed synchronously from optics, mechanics, electronics and technology to manufacture a complete product without having to import from abroad.

The product is the result of integrating many difficult and complex technologies such as: Precision mechanical processing technology, large-sized optical processing technology, optical thin film technology, electronic technology, chemical technology... contributing to meeting the needs of remote detection and surveillance for the Navy and Border Guard forces on duty in border areas and islands.

Captain Doan Ngoc Hiep, Project Manager, said that in terms of economic efficiency, the product saves foreign currency and costs. Specifically, if purchasing designs from abroad for a set of design documents according to military standards including product drawings, technical acceptance conditions, technical explanations and user manuals, and technological documents, it would cost about 250,000 USD (over 5 billion VND).

Compared to similar products on the market, the imported price is about 350 million VND, while the price of domestically manufactured products is only about 220 million VND, thus saving 130 million VND/product.

Furthermore, domestic production will be self-sufficient and reduce the cost of product repair and maintenance. While foreign-purchased products, after a period of use, are damaged and must be sent abroad, the cost of repair is very high (about 30% to 40% of the purchase price) and cannot be self-sufficient because they depend on foreign partners.

High applicability

According to Prof. Dr. Vu Hoan, Chairman of the Hanoi Association, this is the first time our country has successfully designed and manufactured night vision glasses with high magnification (10 times). The research and design work based on practical requirements in combat readiness training for soldiers has contributed to ensuring national defense and security, creating new products with good quality that are qualified to be used to observe and detect targets at night for border patrol forces or for soldiers guarding and protecting in sea and island areas.

The project has been applied to mass production at Factory 23 on an industrial scale based on the use of existing equipment and technology lines without requiring new investments in infrastructure, equipment, and staff. At the same time, it has built and trained a team of highly skilled technical staff and workers who can master the design and manufacture of high-tech, complex, and precise products in the fields of optics and optoelectronics.

According to Chinhphu.vn