A FLIR FOR INNOVATION
helped solve some of the challenges it faced in those areas to arrive at its accom- plishment today as an Army innovation success.
REQUIREMENTS Te 3rd Gen FLIR program struggled early in its development, as do most new and innovative efforts,
requirement documentation crucial
which served to partner in-house expertise with external communi- ties through cooperative research and development agreements.
to identify to
help support the planning and resourcing necessary to sustain a successful program. Without the user community under- standing what could be possible, the requirements at the time were all based around the perceived limitations of what technology could provide. To reiterate the old adage attributed to Henry Ford, “If I had asked the people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” To overcome this, the research community developed a comprehensive strategy for educational outreach on the full poten- tial of what 3rd Gen FLIR could achieve and executed it to help inform the Army’s requirement developers, military officers and industry. Tis campaign highlighted not only the need, but also what was pos- sible, and served as the catalyst to bring the entire community together to make 3rd Gen FLIR a reality for the warfighter.
EXPERTISE Te expertise required to achieve 3rd Gen FLIR success was spread across a variety of organizations and industries. More than 16 significant research and development projects from multiple orga- nizations were integrated to create this program:
• Tirteen percent were from Small Business Innovation Research program efforts, which brought in companies outside of the traditional large defense contractors.
• More than 25 percent of the activi- ties involved applied research funding,
206 Army AL&T Magazine January-March 2018
• Tirty-one percent of the efforts were Manufacturing Technology (Man- Tech) initiatives, working with focal plane array and substrate manufactur- ers to develop the technology necessary to drive down future costs and ensure the stability of long-term manufactur- ing capabilities. (Focal planes are like the digital film in modern digital cam- eras that record the images.)
• Tirty-one percent of activities were executed through advanced technology development funding with traditional large defense contractors who work on sensor development and system integration.
All of these ingredients were critical to create the 3rd Gen FLIR system. But ingredients by themselves do not make a masterpiece; a chef is needed to bring them together in the right sequence with the proper proportions to achieve the desired result. For 3rd Gen FLIR, the tal- ented workforce across the Army research community played this vital role, strate- gically aligning these individual activities and working them together to provide a comprehensive, interconnected final solution.
RESOURCES Neither requirements nor expertise would count for much were there not appropriate, sustained investments over time to support the development of 3rd Gen FLIR. Te program took many years of consistent investments into
UNLOCKED POTENTIAL
A Soldier views the 3rd Gen FLIR’s capabilities. Third Gen FLIR enables greater speed, precision and range in the targeting process and promises to unlock the full potential of infrared imaging. (U.S. Army photo by CERDEC)
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