The Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced that the army is in the process of procuring 556 augmented reality head-mounted display (ARHMD) systems.
The Indian Army will acquire the ARHMD systems under Make-II Category.
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ARHMD serves as a capability enhancement to land-based air defence weapon systems such as the IGLA shoulder-fired Infrared Homing Air Defence Missile System and the ZU 23mm 2B AD Gun System.
It will provide the operator with radar and thermal imaging (TI) sight outputs as overlays and is aimed at improving engagement capability during nighttime and inclement weather conditions.
Day-time engagements are intended to be improved via increased reaction times, data computation for decision support and output integration of thermal imaging sight.
Projects under India’s ‘Make-II’ category include prototype development of equipment or their upgrades or sub-systems, primarily for import substitution / innovative solutions.
Government funding will not be provided for prototype development purposes under this category.
The Indian Army issued a project sanction order (PSO) on 22 February to six vendors to develop the ARHMD system prototype, following evaluation of vendor responses.
Indian Defence Ministry said in a statement: “The contract will be placed with one of the firms post successful development of prototype as per provisions of Buy (Indian-IDDM) category of DAP 2020.
“Development of augmented reality head-mounted display system under Make-II will be a game-changer for Indian Army.
“It will be in sync with ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ policy of the government and will lead to ‘self reliance’ by giving boost to the Indian defence industry.”
Last month, the Indian Army received the first batch of Negev Light Machine Guns from Israel to boost frontline troops’ firepower.
