Teledyne Qioptiq:
focusing on enhanced connectivity and digital lethality

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The tempo of modern warfare continues to evolve, which means dismounted soldiers must act fast. Increasing their connectivity and lethality is critical to saving lives and achieving successful missions. The way modern armed forces generate that lethality is undergoing a fundamental shift.

For Teledyne Qioptiq, innovations in electro-optics are redefining how soldiers interact with their environments, providing enhanced precision, better decision-making tools and greater safety in combat.

"Everything we do in the electro-optics world is about enhancing awareness and connectivity, and therefore lethality," says Steve Rickard, Business Development Director at Teledyne Qioptiq. "It's easy to focus on the weapon, the ammunition, sighting system, training and so on in isolation, but everything contributes. Our job is to make sure soldiers have the right kit and the right information at the right time, so that they can make the right decisions earlier, faster and at greater ranges than any adversary."

Reducing the burden

The challenge is that capabilities are often simply bolted on, such as onto separate rifle rails, or body work rigs, each with its own power demands and interfaces. The factors that determine how quickly and accurately a soldier can put the first round on target are always range, weight, speed and environmental factors.

This 'stuck-on' architecture risks soldier survivability. Soldiers need more information and capability, but they don't want more equipment strapped on. The goal is to shrink, not stack.

To combat this, Teledyne Qioptiq focuses on true system integration. "There will come a day when the weapon system is combined with the sighting system, where the optics aren't afterthoughts bolted on, but part of an integrated solution. We're already working on the next generation of sighting systems that can actually enable and enhance lethality - and we're doing it by taking a more integrated approach."

“Sensors are getting smaller and lighter with higher resolutions. It's like we're all using an iPhone 16 today, but the iPhone 20 is just around the corner. We're excited about what this generation of sensors will unlock: more range, more sensitivity, better definition without making things bigger."

Human Machine Teaming

One of the most significant developments in soldier sighting systems is their connectivity to unmanned systems, such as drones, robotic scouts and ground vehicles. These systems have the potential to become integrated with sighting equipment, offering real-time feeds that can be used to enhance the soldier's situational awareness and target identification capabilities, along with the ability to command and control remote effectors without the need for specialised additional control systems.

For example, soldiers can receive live footage from UAVs equipped with high-resolution cameras, thermal imaging and geo-locational sensors. This footage can be directly integrated into their vision and sighting systems, giving them a broader view of the battlefield, including areas outside their line of sight. This collaboration with unmanned systems extends the soldier's sensory reach, providing more information to make faster, better decisions.

Spiral development

Another enabler is spiral development, an approach Teledyne Qioptiq is using to shape its engineering approach, particularly as digitisation becomes more prevalent.

"It's very unlikely that weapon platforms will sit unchanged for 40 years anymore. Capabilities move much faster. With spiral development, incremental upgrades can keep pace with technology and keep improving lethality without waiting for full replacement cycles."

The next layer of digital lethality - fusion, machine learning and AI

While integration and improved sensors are making the difference today, the future will see rapid shifts in how soldiers interpret and interact on the battlefield, driven by digitalisation, including machine learning and AI.

Teledyne Qioptiq is already embedding such innovations into its roadmap. "We're very much looking at digital sensing technology, AI-assisted detection, and machine-supported recognition, all aimed to help detect, recognise and identify threats faster than humans can alone. These sensors can process more information faster, notifying the soldier that something is worth looking at. That early cue could be decisive."

Passive target tracking, which continuously updates the soldier's point of aim as the target moves or changes behaviour. Instead of the user needing to repeatedly re-acquire their aim point, the system interprets the motion in the scene and subtly adjusts the aim reference to maintain accuracy. This applies across individual targets, groups, and even vehicles, helping soldiers engage moving threats with greater confidence and speed.

Motion estimation, where the sight analyses patterns in how targets accelerate, decelerate or change direction, and feeds this back to the user. In high-stress, fast-moving close combat, subtle changes in movement are easy for humans to miss. By detecting these changes and cueing the soldier earlier, the system can help users maintain tracking, anticipate target shifts, and reduce the cognitive load that typically leads to errors.

Turbulence, mirage and wind effects can offset ballistics. With atmospheric analysis, on-board sensors can reference visual cues in the environment, so the optic system can suggest wind corrections or highlight areas of distortion that might affect shot placement. This becomes particularly valuable at extended ranges, where environmental factors have the greatest impact and where dismounted soldiers traditionally rely on judgement rather than tools.

This area has been a key focus for the Teledyne Qioptiq technology developers, with significant effort being placed on low power “on the edge” processing that can deploy AI capabilities to DCC Users. Bringing together a number of capabilities including Collaborative Target Handoff (CTH), Passive Range Finding (PRF) and AI Motion Estimation (AIME), the GRYPHON AI Hub is a stand alone module, working in conjunction with an App that provides DCC Users with a number of capabilities to exploit.

Conclusion

At Teledyne Qioptiq, we recognise the need to ensure our system solutions offer our customers a meaningful advantage on the battlefield, which is why we operate an integrated model across our Technology Roadmaps, Product Roadmaps, and New Product Introduction timelines to ensure we are developing and delivering solutions tailored to the needs of the rapidly evolving digital and connected battlespace. Spiral acquisition with pre-planned technology upgrades across the life of a capability is now a way of life for many acquisition authorities, who require long term partnerships with trusted suppliers, acting in unison with front line commands to ensure the “One Defence” model can deliver true benefit.

Teledyne Qioptiq will be exhibiting at a number of exhibitions and events throughout the year, so please check out the event calendars, come to see us to engage with our technology developers and see how developments in electro-optics, digitization, and integration can deliver enhancements to lethality.

For more information please visit:
https://www.qioptiq.com