Fixview readies stabilised sensor turret for Vigía 2B UAV programme

Argentine company Fixview, which specialises in the development and production of stabilised electro-optical sighting systems, has rolled out the new FV300 system.

The FV300 is a family of modular electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor turrets that can be equipped with a range of high-definition sensors to address specific customer requirements. These can include day and IR cameras and laser rangefinders.

A full-scale mock-up of the FAA’s Vigía 2B UAV. (Santiago Rivas)

The gyrostabilised FV300 turret has been selected to equip the Argentine Air Force’s (Fuerza Aérea Argentina: FAA) Vigía 2B unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which is under development by the FAA’s research and development department, Dirección General de Investigación y Desarrollo.

According to company specifications, the FV300 turret has a diameter of 300 mm and unladen weight of 17 kg, enabling it to be fitted to small aircraft including UAVs. It can be fitted with a 1080p full HD daylight camera with 30× continuous optical and 2–4× digital zoom, and a wide and narrow field of view (FoV) of 63.7° and 2.3°, respectively.

The standard FV300 gyrostabilised turret seen on a commercial Bell 407 helicopter. The turret has been selected to form the basis of a new sensor pod for the FAA’s in-development Vigía 2B UAV. (Santiago Rivas)

It can also be equipped with an IR camera comprising a cooled 3–5 µm mid-wave IR (MWIR) array with 640 × 512 pixel resolution and 18–275 mm continuous optical zoom, which offers a wide FoV of 30.6° × 24.5° and narrow FoV of 2.05° × 1.64°.

A Class 3B laser pointer with 100 mW power output and a NATO-standard Class 1 1.5 µm laser rangefinder with a range of up to 10 km can be fitted if requiired.