French Army adopts FN Elity ballistic calculator

FN SCAR-H precision rifle fitted with Elity ballistic calculator. (FN Herstal)

FN Herstal announced in a press release on 7 February that it had supplied an unspecified number of Elity ballistic calculators to the French Army.

The company said that the decision to acquirethe Elity followed several months of testing and evaluation by the French Army's Battle-Lab Terre (BLT) land battle lab on the FN SCAR-H (heavy) 7.62 mm Fusil de Précision Semi-Automatique (Semi-Automatic Precision Rifle) in French service, as well as the PGM Hécate II revalorisé (upgraded) 12.7 mm long-range rifle.Testing by the BLTyielded a 40% reduction in the detection-neutralisation loop and a 25% increase in overall accuracy, according to FN Herstal.

First unveiled in 2021, the 400 g Elity ballistic calculator can be mounted to a host weapon or spotting scope via a MIL-STD-1913-type rail interface. The main body of the Elity houses a laser rangefinder, a visible laser pointer, an infrared (IR) laser pointer, and an IR illuminator. Both pointers can be set to operate on either low- or high-power settings. The rear of the housing features a digital clockface organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, which is used to display target ranges, windspeed and direction, cant, and optical sight adjustments. The Elity is capable of sensing environmental data via a built-in motion sensor, inclinometer, and digital compass. The device can also take external barometric pressure, temperature, and humidity readings. An external wind sensor can be paired with the Elity via Bluetooth connection.