Teledyne FLIR Defense Awarded $74.2M for Army Sensor Suite Upgrade: Week in Brief: 4/11/25

Photonics.com
Apr 2025BOSTON, April 11, 2025 — Teledyne FLIR Defense has been awarded a four year, $74.2 million contract by the U.S. Army for the continued development of the mounted reconnaissance capability for the M1135 Stryker’s nuclear, biological, and chemical reconnaissance vehicle sensor suite upgrade program. Among other third-party solutions, the sensor suite features the FLIR Defense R80D SkyRaider drone integrated with FLIR’s MUVE B330 biological detection payload designed for small unmanned aerial systems. The contract is a continuation of a $168.3 million indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract awarded last November.

The U.S. Army’s M1135 Stryker. Courtesy of Teledyne FLIR Defense.

OZARÓW MAZOWIECKI, Poland — VIGO Photonics, a developer of MIR detectors and semiconductor materials, has entered into a strategic framework agreement with PCO S.A., a manufacturer of optoelectronic solutions for the military, for the supply of cooled infrared detector arrays. The contract, worth PLN 200 million ($52.4 million), describes a long-term collaboration aimed at the final development of arrays in line with PCO's demand, followed by their production and sale. The matrices will find application in combat platforms as well as in anti-aircraft systems in both the Polish army and the European defense industry.

PUCHHEIM, Germany — Scan solutions developer SCANLAB GmbH has entered into a partnership with AI company 1000 Kelvin GmbH to create an integrated additive manufacturing solution. Combining SCANLAB’s SCANmotionControl system with 1000 Kelvin’s AMAIZE physics-AI platform, the software integration is based on the open 3MF 3D manufacturing format and adds together AI interaction with laser power distribution and thermal melt pool behavior in metal additive manufacturing.

PARIS — Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport has selected AI software company Outsight to provide real-time spatial intelligence across its facilities. Outsight will provide DFW International Airport its Spatial AI software platform, which is hardware-agnostic and compatible with multiple lidar sensor brands, to create a larger 3D lidar deployment through a contract worth $17.2 million.

EtaMax CEO Jung Hyundon (left) and HORIBA, Ltd. director Dan Horiba. Courtesy of HORIBA STEC KOREA, Ltd.

EtaMax CEO Jung Hyundon (left) and HORIBA, Ltd. director Dan Horiba. Courtesy of HORIBA STEC KOREA, Ltd.

YONGIN CITY, South Korea — HORIBA STEC KOREA, Ltd., a semiconductor company, has acquired EtaMax Co., Ltd., a developer, manufacturer, and seller of wafer inspection systems for the semiconductor market. EtaMax primarily develops wafer inspection systems using photoluminescence analysis technology and will allow HORIBA to expand its business, including the development of new products.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Quantum technology company BTQ Technologies Corp. has signed a non-binding term sheet to invest €2 million ($2.2 million) in neutral atom quantum computing company QPerfect. The agreement reflects BTQ's commitment to building a global quantum ecosystem and accelerating the development of secure quantum applications, according to the company. The proposed investment, based on a pre-money valuation of €10 million, would grant BTQ a 16.67% equity stake in QPerfect, with the option to acquire full ownership within 12 months.

ORLANDO, Fla. — LightPath Technologies, Inc., a provider of optics and imaging systems for defense and commercial applications, has been awarded an initial $2.2 million engineering development model order through its subsidiary G5 Infrared for IR cameras by L3Harris Technologies, a defense contractor. The contract supports the U.S. Navy's shipboard panoramic electro-optic/infrared program, with G5's systems scheduled for delivery to L3Harris later this year.

Meadowlark’s liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator that can operate at an average laser power of 1.4 kW. Courtesy of Meadowlark Optics.

FREDERICK, Colo. — Liquid crystal solutions company Meadowlark Optics has demonstrated a liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) spatial light modulator (SLM) operating at a world-record average laser power of 1.4 kW, according to the company. In collaboration with professor Jeff Squier at the Colorado School of Mines and funded by a Phase I Department of Energy small business innovation research grant, the company designed the LCoS SLM to withstand the heating effects of high-power lasers and tested it using a 2 kW continuous wave 1070 nm laser.

SCANTECH will integrate its 3D scanning technology with Lingban’s AR technologies. Courtesy of SCANTECH.

HANGZHOU, China — SCANTECH, a 3D scanning and digitization company, has entered into a strategic partnership with Lingban Technology, an AR company, aiming to integrate 3D visual digitization and AR technologies to create more intuitive tools for industries. SCANTECH will integrate high-precision 3D scanning technology into Lingban Technology’s AR training platforms X-Training and AR glasses to improve industrial use of complex data.

TORONTO — Satellite telecommunications provider Kepler Communications Inc. is preparing to sell high-capacity on-orbit compute capabilities enabled by its optical data relay constellation, “The Kepler Network.” Under Kepler’s on-orbit compute offering, customers may lease or purchase computing hardware onboard Kepler’s optical data relay satellites, enabling on-orbit computing capabilities to support advanced processing, data storage, cloud compute, AI, multi-sensor data fusion, and other use cases in space. Each Kepler satellite hosts edge computing payloads with processing units and storage available for customers to use. Concurrently, commercial space station builder Axiom Space has entered into a strategic collaboration with Kepler to purchase two initial on-orbit computing payloads for Axiom Space’s orbital data center business.

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