Sierra Nevada Corporation is conducting third-phase development of a system to improve the vision of pilots in degraded visual environments.

The work comes under a task order awarded by the U.S. Special Operations Command Technology Applications Contracting Office and follows an airborne test in June that demonstrated SNC's ability to fuse multi-sensor data into real-time, high-fidelity imagery in degraded visual conditions such as brownouts, smoke, sand, snow, rain and fog.

The task order is effective in fiscal year 2016 and covers integrated system development and demonstration, low-rate production and qualification testing.

"It is a great honor to have been selected for the third phase of this important life-saving and mission-enabling program that will provide agile, flexible and economical technology to our country's military." said Greg Cox, corporate vice president for SNC's Communication, Navigation and Surveillance/Air Traffic Management business area.

"DVEPS (Degraded Visual Environment Pilotage System) combines unmatched performance in a reduced size, weight and power envelope, creating a superior system that was unavailable at the start of the program. We look forward to finalizing this phase of the contract, leading to a Full-Rate Production decision in fiscal year 2017/2018."