French DGA orders additional laser designators from Cilas

The Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA) announced on its website on 3 February that it had ordered 25 additional DHY 208 short-range laser designators from Cilas in December 2021 after qualifying the equipment last summer.

Under the Taranis laser designator programme, the agency awarded Cilas two contracts to produce more compact new generation laser designators. The intention is to operate modules that weigh less than 5 kg, compared with the current 16 kg systems. The DGA plans to procure nearly 200 DHY 208s and around 50 DHY 308 long-range laser designators by 2025, the announcement stated.

The programme contributes to meeting an objective of France's Loi de Programmation Militaire 2019–2025 military funding programme by improving soldiers' conditions so that they can conduct operations in a durable and sustainable manner.

The DHY 208 and DHY 308 modules are designed for use by special forces, forward air controllers, and joint terminal attack controls, and meet the requirements of NATO STANAG 3733 on laser designators, according to Cilas. The use of athermal diode-pumped laser technology helps minimise the designators' volume and power consumption. The designators do not require warm-up time and have a reduced acoustic signature.

The DHY 208 comprises an optical channel for identification, digital magnetic compass, and GPS. It also has a day view optic magnification of 7×, a range of up to 4 km, weighs less than 2 kg, and has an output energy of over 30 mJ.

The DHY 308 weighs less than 3 kg, has a range of 10 km, and an output energy of more than 80 mJJ. The optical sight channel for identification can operate with a magnification of 10×.