Ozmens’ SNC To Supply Degraded Visual Environment System For USAF’s HH-60G Chopper

Ozmens’ SNC has won a contract to supply Degraded Visual Environment System (DVES) for United States Air Force’s (USAF’s) HH-60G twin-turboshaft engine helicopter.

The contract includes design, development, integration and testing of the DVES on the USAF HH-60G aircraft. This system enables pilots to safely takeoff or land in aircraft-induced brownout and whiteout conditions, allowing them to move past operational limitations and address a challenge that costs the US military in both lives and equipment, the company said in a statement Monday.

Throughout Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, 58 percent of helicopter losses and 52 percent of fatalities have been attributed to controlled flight into terrain, wire and object strikes, or hard landings in Degraded Visual Environment (DVE) conditions. 

The DVES program will provide USAF HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter combat search and rescue aircrews with a system to address the operational limitations posed by loss of visual situational awareness in aircraft-induced DVE.

The USAF DVES will increase mission capability and enhance safety by providing pilots with adequate situational awareness of uncharted terrain and obstacles for safe flight operations in DVE.

SNC’s DVE solutions provide increased flight safety and operational capability for all modes of flight in natural and aircraft-induced DVE by restoring pilot situational awareness through real‐time, multi‐sensor fused imagery.