Members of the British Army's Irish Guard sport weapons featuring the Surveillance and Target Acquisition portion of the Future Integrated Soldier Technology program.

The UK government has signed a £150 million contract with Thales for a spinout of its Future Integrated Soldier Technology program, Quentin Davies, UK Defense Equipment and Support minister said on September 8.

The contract covers around 11,000 sets of weapons sights, observation equipment and target acquisition equipment, which will serve about 95 companies of dismounted soldiers.

Entry into service expected in late 2010, industry and defense officials said at an event marking the signing of the contract at the DSEi 2009 show in London.

Full delivery on the contract is expected by June 2014, said Thales, which is acting as prime contractor on the FIST program.

Known as Strand 1A of the FIST contract, the newly contracted tranche will be followed by 1B, covering C4I equipment. That contract will be signed “within a small number of months,” said Davies. An industry official added that the 1B contract, which would have a value similar to 1A, would be signed by year end.

The Strand 1A package includes thermal sights from UK firm Qioptiq, close quarter battle sights from UK firm Shield, lightweight day sights from Canadian firm Elcan, underslung grenade launcher sights from UK firm Istec, underslung grenade launcher fire control systems and Commanders’ Target Locating Systems from Vectronix, digital cameras from UK firm Olympus and infantry periscopes from Israel’s Uniscope.
While putting together a package of largely off the shelf products, officials said that integration work had been undertaken to ensure minimal total weight and power consumption.