Fort Hood Unit Receives 1000th SGF

Company C, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas, recently received the 1000th fielded Second Generation Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) imaging device with their new M1A2SEP Abrams tanks. The Second Generation FLIR (SGF) can see through smoke and haze, and twice as far as the First Generation FLIR. The tanks equipped with the new SGF can acquire and identify targets at greater distances, which enables the crew to have hunter-killer capabilities, allowing the gunner to engage targets in one direction, while the tank commander simultaneously looks for additional enemy targets. Through a program called Horizontal Technology Integration, the electro-optical components that make up the SGF are used in the night systems for four key weapons platforms: the M1A2SEP Abrams tank, the M2A3/M3A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the Line of Sight Antitank platform, and the Long Range Advanced Scout Surveillance System, which is currently deployed in Kosovo and Afghanistan. This technology ensures key battlefield improvements to the combined arms team, providing a common battlefield picture to the warfighter and ensures logistic supportability.

Periodicals Postage Paid at Louisville, KY

The Professional Development Bulletin of the Armor Branch U. S. Army Armor Center

Fort Knox, KY 40121-5210 PB 17-02-6 The diagram at right shows the trajectory for the SGF wide and narrow fields of view. Above right, a view of a woodline through the SGF.