Safran Vectronix AG

Safran Vectronix works out of Heerbrugg in the Rhine valley of eastern Switzerland, on a site whose optical pedigree runs back through Leica Geosystems and the Wild Heerbrugg surveying works. Vectronix was carved out as a defence optronics company and later bought by Sagem, now Safran Electronics & Defense, which means the Swiss plant supplies both Safran's own systems and a long list of armies that buy direct. The work is narrow and deep: putting a soldier's eye, a laser, a compass and a digital output into a device that one person can carry and that produces target coordinates accurate enough to call artillery or aircraft onto.

The VECTOR binocular laser rangefinders are the best known family. A Vector 21 measures out to about twelve kilometres using a 1,550 nanometre laser that image intensifier tubes cannot see, so the operator is not lighting himself up to anyone wearing night vision. The Vector 23 pushes target acquisition toward twenty-five kilometres. All of them combine ranging with a digital magnetic compass and inclinometer, so the output is a position rather than a distance, and they pass it to fire control and battle management systems over a data link. PLRF25C takes the same idea into a single-hand device ranging to 6,000 metres, which is the tool a dismounted forward observer actually carries when weight is the binding constraint.

Thermal and multifunction devices form the second line. MOSKITO is a multifunctional monocular for observation and localisation, and MOSKITO TI adds an uncooled thermal channel for medium range target location by infantry and special forces working through the night. JIM LR is the long-range cooled infrared binocular, detecting, identifying and geolocating out to roughly ten kilometres, with JIM Compact offering a lighter package that still reaches twelve kilometres for surveillance and geolocation tasks. These are the devices behind a good deal of European forward observer and joint terminal attack controller equipment, and they appear on the French Army inventory and in several NATO member states.

The third strand is orientation. STERNA is a gyroscope-based true north finder that mounts on a tripod under a target locator and fixes azimuth without reference to the earth's magnetic field, which matters in vehicles, near power lines and anywhere else a compass lies. It conforms to STANAG 3733 and is used with laser target designators including the SLAM D, DHY 208 and DHY 308 and the Rattler GX, giving first-round fire-for-effect accuracy. Beneath all of it sits an original equipment business selling laser rangefinder modules, north-finding units and sighting assemblies to integrators who build them into remote weapon stations, vehicle sights, mortar fire control and unmanned platforms. Safran Vectronix also handles calibration, repair and modernisation of fielded devices, which for equipment with fifteen to twenty year service lives is a long revenue tail.