Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), the global aerospace and national security company owned by Eren and Fatih Ozmen, has been awarded a production contract with multiple delivery orders to procure, deliver and support the Degraded Visual Environment Pilotage System (DVEPS) on U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and select U.S. Army aircraft. SNC DVE Solutions enhance visibility and situational awareness for aircrews in low-visibility conditions, enabling them to “see and avoid” obstacles in their flight path during takeoff, enroute and landing phases of flight. This final phase includes full-rate production of DVEPS systems in Sparks, Nevada
DVEPS will enhance aircraft survivability throughout the entire mission profile by providing critical capabilities not available on current aircraft, such as terrain and obstacle detection, highlighting and alerts. The DVEPS is a multi-sensor system providing real-time situational awareness to aid pilots in maintaining spatial awareness during and after transition from Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) to DVE conditions. DVEPS offers a leap-ahead capability to enhanced situational awareness today and provides the foundation for an incremental growth path to a much great capability such as pilotage or supervised autonomy, fully relevant for future vertical lift (FVL) aircraft.
Aviation crews flying closer to the ground in limited visibility conditions will need to be aware of, and avoid, unseen dangerous terrain and obstacles in their path—from trees, to electrical wires, to towers. SNC DVE technology provides terrain and obstacle awareness, including cable and wire detection, in limited visibility conditions, anywhere and at any time. It also allows aircrews to complete missions safely and successfully in multi-ship operations and degraded navigation environments. SNC was competitively selected for the third phase DVEPS task order following a successful airborne test at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona in 2015.
Owned by Chairwoman and President Eren Ozmen and CEO Fatih Ozmen, SNC is a trusted leader in solving the world’s toughest challenges through best-of-breed, open architecture engineering in Space Systems, Commercial Solutions, and National Security and Defense. SNC is recognized among the three most innovative U.S. companies in space, as a Tier One Superior Supplier for the U.S. Air Force, and as one of America’s fastest growing companies. SNC’s 55-year legacy of state-of-the art civil, military and commercial solutions includes delivering more than 4,000 space systems, subsystems and components to customers worldwide, and participation in more than 450 missions to space, including Mars.
