New Optical Tags to Improve Combat Identification of Friendly Forces

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Photo: Brimrose
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The new taggant system as demonstrated at AUSA 2013. The dot flashing on the screen is the taggant, as seen by the SWIR, emitting light on extremely narrow bandwidth. This application enables troops to identify friendly element (such as special forces under disguise) or marked targets even in crowded environment. Photo: Tamir Eshel, Defense-Update

 

 

R4013 125x125Brimrose Technology Corporation is introducing a new generation of optical taggants which will enable enhanced, covert marking and identification using unique narrow-band source ad Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) imaging systems.

Optical taggants are target identifiers located on friendly or enemy personnel or material that enable the Warfighter to make critical decisions in target identification in a tactical environment, day and night. The announcement was made at the AUSA 2013 Annual Meeting and Exposition.

“The 21st century battlefield is evolving rapidly and for the U.S. Army to stay out in front of it we need to continue to employ tools and tactics that keep us ahead of those who would do harm to our nation” says Brimrose CEO Dr. Ron Rosemeier. “With these new taggants, we are opening opportunities at the edge that will make our fighting forces more effective.” It is critical that the optical taggants only be seen by the observing party, the U.S. Warfighter. When all parties have goggles that can see the activated taggants, as is the case with 3G IR goggles, they lose their effectiveness. The new generation of Brimrose taggants can be seen only by those using SWIR technology.

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Brimrose is supplying an advanced SWIR AOTF (Short Wave Infrared Acousto-Optic Tunable Filter) hyperspectral imager to provide the Warfighter with “special eyes” to find and locate these advanced TTL (Tagging, Tracking & Locating) taggants which are not observable by commonly used 3G night vision goggles, which are globally available.

The SWIR AOTF hyperspectral imagers let the soldier in the field identify optical taggants at a highly specific wavelength which is outside of the commonly viewed IR frequencies. When the taggant activates or fluoresces, the soldier can track friendly troop and material movements.

The soldier also has a Brimrose covert source invisible to the naked eye that he can track and locate which provides critical information about enemy troop and vehicle movement, weaponry, contraband, as well as being useful for other purposes. This source is also beyond the range of 3G night goggles.

Te new taggants are visible only to US forces again let the U.S. Warfighter own the night and day in terms of being able to see and process critical information beyond what the human eye can see even with the help of 3rd generation night vision goggles.

Photo: Brimrose
The technology offered by Brimrose employs specially designed taggants triggered Remotely to illuminate (flash) in a very narrow band invisible to conventional I2 imagers or FLIRs. They are visible only to S wI r imaging systems, available only to a select number of government approved users. Photo: Brimrose