"Raytheon and DRS have teamed to provide an IFLIR solution that provides our military supremacy in reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition," said Dr. Taylor Lawrence, president of Raytheon Missile Systems. "The 3rd Gen IFLIR program is critical to our military forces and necessary to sustain our soldier's combat advantage."

The announcement follows the two companies' previous effort on the 2nd Gen FLIR program which saw nearly 20,000 sensors fielded to the Army, Navy and Marine Corps during the last decade.

"With this effort, Raytheon and DRS will leverage our Horizontal Technology Integration experience and 3rd Gen focal plane array technology," said Michelle Lohmeier, vice president of Raytheon's Land Warfare Systems. "We offer a low-risk schedule and program plan to field this technology into land combat platforms."

The Raytheon – DRS team has delivered 2nd Gen FLIR technology to:

"The Army and our team have a strong track record of delivering state-of-the-art next generation FLIR technology on our nation's premiere ground vehicle combat platforms," said Sally Wallace, DRS C4ISR Group president. "Our experience integrating a common FLIR across the Army's combat vehicle platforms is critical to synchronizing the Army's modernization strategy."

FLIR gives warfighters the ability to perform targeting, reconnaissance and fire support under the cloak of darkness, giving them the power to “own the night.” They can peer through dust storms, see enemies in hiding and get high-resolution pictures without giving away their positions.