An Eyeful For Machinegunners

September 15, 2009: The British Royal Navy is equipping door gunners on the Lynx helicopters, flying off warships, with a helmet mounted "Q-Sight". The 12.7mm machine-gun is equipped with a thermal imager, which is electronically connected to the Q-Sight. Whatever the thermal imager sees is projected onto an transparent display over the gunners right eye. Thus the gunner can still use both eyes, while also keeping an eye on what the machine-gun is pointing at. With this kind of setup, the gunner can quickly hit anything within 2,000 meters. Getting those first few shots off accurately is important is those on the other end can fire back.

The Royal Navy is buying twelve of the Q-Sight systems, and will try them out in places like the Somali coast, where there's opportunity to give the sight some realistic testing.