Elbit Systems Of America

From Night Vision Wiki

Elbit is a manufacturer of both imagine intensifier tubes and many iconic night vision housings, such as the AN/PVS-14.

History[edit | edit source]

  • In 2011, Exelis, the defense arm of ITT, became an independent defense company.[1]
  • In 2015, Exelis was acquired by Harris.[1]
  • In 2019, during the merger of L3 and Harris, the night vision arm of Harris was sold to Elbit, in an effort to avoid monopolizing the night vision market.[2]

Products[edit | edit source]

Products that have been developed by Elbit's night vision arm (even when it belonged to Harris, Exelis, or ITT) use a four-digit designation prefixed by the letter F, e.g. F4212 or F9800.

Elbit's website features a catalogue of all its products, including the category of night vision.

Devices[edit | edit source]

Binoculars[edit | edit source]

  • AN/AVS-6 (F4212/F4210)
  • AN/AVS-9 (F4949)
  • AN/PVS-23 (F5050)
  • AN/PVS-31D / Lightweight Night Vision Binocular (F5032)
  • Squad Binocular Night Vision Goggle
  • TM-NVG (F6044)
  • AN/PSQ-44 / ENVG-B (F6025)

Monoculars[edit | edit source]

Bi-Oculars[edit | edit source]

Others[edit | edit source]

  • Clip-on Weapon Sight (F7030)
  • Quadeye and Mini Quadeye (made by Kollsman, a subsidiary of ESA)[3]
  • HDTS, Helmet Display and Tracking System[4]

Image Intensifiers[edit | edit source]

Elbit manufactures filmed third generation image intensifiers exclusively.

Pinnacle[edit | edit source]

Pinncale™ is a trademark for Elbit's thin-filmed image intensifier technology.

Naming[edit | edit source]

All series of Elbit's image intensifiers use the F-designation (identifying format and phosphor color).

A suffix of one or more letters or numbers denotes a specific class of image intensifier tubes, defining performance ranges as well as other ratings.

  • The first digit is always 9 to identify an image intensifier tube.
  • The second digit denotes the phosphor color.
    • 4 stands for P-45 (white)
    • 8 stands for P-43 (green)
  • The third and fourth digit denote the tube format.
    • 00 stands for MX-10160
    • 10 stands for MX-10130
    • 15 stands for MX-11769
    • 16 stands for the proprietary tube format of the ENVG (F6023)
    • 21 stands for the proprietary tube format of the AN/AVS-10

Example: F9800XLSH refers to green phosphor MX-10160 image intensifiers in the XLSH class.

Classes[edit | edit source]

This list is incomplete, you can help by expanding it.

M16G / M18G / M20G[edit | edit source]

M16G / M18G / M20G are three classes of image intensifier tubes with rising performance minimums.

The two digit number, when multiplied by a factor of 100, indicates the minimum FOM (1600 / 1800 / 2000).

They were developed when the night vision arm was still operating under Harris to comply with the U.S. Department of Defense guidelines for Gen. 3 export.[5][Note 1]

XLSH / XLSH2[edit | edit source]

XLSH is Elbit's class of commercial image intensifier tubes.

P / J[edit | edit source]

Export model, max. 1600 / 1250 FOM.[6] P meets the Omni V spec.

FG[edit | edit source]
⚠ This section contains unverified information. You can help by adding references to it.

Export model, produced for the UK. military. Most likely meets Omni V spec.

Notes[edit | edit source]

  1. Export in this case refers to exporting to international military, law enforcement, and search and rescue organizations. Such image intensifiers cannot be exported for use by civilians, as they still fall within ITAR regulations.

Further Reading[edit | edit source]

How Pinnacle won over filmless:
How ITT's Development of the PinnacleTM Thin-Filmed Image Intensifier Tube Redefined the U.S. Military's "View" of Night Vision Technology

References[edit | edit source]