Defence

The US Army's Bell ARH-70A armed reconnaissance helicopters (ARH) will be equipped with a helmet display and tracking system based on the Elbit Systems Anvis/Hud-24t.

Elbit's US subsidiary EFW has won a contract from Bell potentially worth $51 million up to 2012, says Yoram Shmuely, Elbit vice-president and airborne and helmet systems division general manager.

Deployment of the US Army's first unit of ARH-70As is targeted for July 2009 and the service is expected to acquire 368 aircraft. The Anvis/Hud-24t night vision imaging/head-up display helmet system is designed to reduce workload for helicopter pilots using line-of-sight (LOS) sensors.

The system shows stabilised symbology to the pilot through a day/night helmet display, with LOS capability achieved via an electromagnetic head-tracker.

The Anvis/Hud 24t can be adapted to enable transport helicopters to perform attack missions as it can relay target co-ordinates pilot-to-pilot or between other flying platforms, says Gil Russo, Elbit airborne and helmet systems division director of marketing, helicopter upgrades.