#Thales

SHOT Show 2024 saw the debut of the THALES XTRAIM Hybrid Thermal Weapon Sight. Optimized for rifles and light machine guns (LMGs), the XTRAIM provides a decisive operational advantage by enabling advanced target acquisition in any light condition.

Back again? Can’t get enough Friday Night Lights? Have you looked at all of our night vision and thermal-related articles? If not click here to see all the articles I have written. Well, today we take a look at another rare thermal device, a Thales Sophie thermal binocular. It is cooled thermal but what makes it very unique is that this is cooled Long Wave Infrared (LWIR). Most cooled thermal is usually middle wavelength infrared (MWIR).

Two weeks ago Gregory Knowles posted some photos from what looks like an industry convention. They were photos from what appears to be a Thales booth showcasing their new QNVG (Quad Night Vision Goggles).

Hello there fellow night vision enthusiast. If you have been following along, last week I showcased the monocular pod adapters for the AB Night Vision RPNVG. If you have been following me, you might know that I have been lusting for a Thales LUCIE for some time now. Well, I have one now and am happy to share this interesting low-profile night vision goggle (LPNVG) from France.

Australia’s Lithgow Arms have established a new research and development hub for Australian defense industry companies with a new small arms collaboration and cooperation center. C3, as the hub is called, is housed inside the Thales-operated Lithgow Arms small arms factory in New South Wales.

Thales has announced the introduction of their latest day/night sight, weighing 530g or 18.7oz, the XTRAIM combines a reflex red dot sight with thermal imaging technology. The sight can be mounted on rifles and light machine guns. It was developed a Thales’ dismounted optics establishment at Saint-Héand in Eastern France.

Photo Of The Day: The SL40 grenade launcher is made by Steyr Mannlicher and was selected by Thales Australia as the preferred choice when the EF88 assault rifle was under development by the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Note that the soldier aims through what is most likely a red dot with a pretty tilted zero due to the ballistics of the 40 mm grenade.

The Australian Government has announced that the Australian Defense Force will receive a further 8,500 EF88 rifles. This comes on top of the 30,000 already ordered and procured from the Thales owned Lithgow Arms. The move comes as Australia announced a major realignment of their defense policy, we covered this in more detail over at Overt Defense.

In recent news, the French Army is adopting the THALES O-NYX night vision goggles (NVGs). According to the recent press release they will be getting 3,179 units out of 3,519 that were ordered.

Thales Australia have teamed up with Indian corporation, the Kalyani Group, to submit the F90CQB bullpup to fulfil India’s 5.56x45mm carbine requirement. The partnership also spans Thales’ other products including the Hawkei protected mobility vehicle and Bushmaster gun system.

The Atrax bullpup rifle was developed as a semi-automatic version of the Australian Defense Force’s F90.  Lithgow Arms has been planning to sell the Atrax on the civilian market in the United States since 2016.  However, a spokesman for Thales, the company that developed the upgrades for the Steyr AUG variant, announced that they were canceling plans for the civilian version based on “ethical grounds”.

The 40x46mm low-velocity SL40 grenade launcher has been in Australian Defence Force service for some time now, serving primarily as a modular under-barrel grenade launcher attached to the 5.56x45mm NATO F90 service rifle within the infantry at the squad or section level. It was first chosen to accompany the F90 family of  rifles in 2014, a derivative of the Austrian Steyr GL40 launcher (the SL40 being a derivative of the GL40). The original design competition was between the Steyr GL40 and the Madritsch Weapon Technology ML40AUS, another Austrian armaments company. The Steyr design was selected for integration.

The Australian Defence Force has announced it will trial the Israeli SMASH computer aided sighting system from Smart Shooter. Smart Shooter, based in Yagur, Israel, offer a range of rifle mounted electro-optical fire control systems. The company claims that by combining “simple-to-install hardware with our own advanced image-processing software” they can cost effectively turn “basic small arms into 21st century smart weapons.”

MKU Ltd. and Thales have announced that they will work together to enter India’s Close Quarter Battle Rifle trials. The announcement came on the 10th April, at Defexpo 2018, as the two companies signed two memorandums of understanding (MoU) for strategic co-operation.

The Steyr AUG is not dead! The latest iteration, the  Thales F90MBR (Modular Bullpup Rifle) was announced just before DSEi and as expected was on display. Our good friend Lionel took these photos of the modular bullpup.