The Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence acquires new Canadian-manufactured Raytheon Elcan Optical Technologies to further upgrade the Lithuanian Armed Forces. The sights will be mounted on 5.56 mm and 7.62 mm weapons the Lithuanian Armed Forces has. The new purchase will improve efficiency of the rate of fire of the Lithuanian military, fire accuracy during the light and dark part of the day, as well as survivability. The sights are designed for the effective range of 300m and more. The acquisition is conducted via the NATO Support and Procurement Agency, the main platform for public procurement carried out by Lithuanian and other NATO Allies’ defence institutions. The 34 million euros worth purchase will be delivered to Lithuania starting the summer of 2024 and through the autumn of 2025.
ELCAN currently manufactures the “Specter” line of combat optics in a variety of configurations. The Elcan Specter is a line of multi-role prism sights originally designed for M16/M4 family of rifles but now also exists for light machine gun and heavy machineguns. Most of the optics are capable of switching between magnifications and illumination. The Specter 4× Optical Sight, DR 1.5×/6×, DR 1x/4× and TR 1/3/9 are available with a BDC reticle for the 5.56×45mm NATO or the 7.62×51mm NATO. The optic has 2 standard reticles both are a cross, feature a range finder out to 600m for 5.56×45 and 800m for 7.62×51, where they differ is in the bulletdrop design where the one called CX5395/CX5396 uses circles to denote the range, while the other called CX5455/CX5456 uses lines and also features lines for windage.
Made in Canada by Raytheon ELCAN (a Raytheon Technologies subsidiary), the ELCAN Specter dual-role and fixed magnification sights have since been improved, with their weight reduced by 15%, battery life extended by 50% and the introduction of a new, low profile illumination switch. New options include a Picatinny rail on top of the sight integrated into the housing, an internal laser filter and an ambidextrous throw lever. The dual-role sight is also available with 1.5-6x magnification and more than 50 custom ballistic reticles to meet changing, unpredictable mission requirements, including custom reticles for mounted and dismounted machine guns. Today, hundreds of thousands of ELCAN Specter sights are fielded with NATO and allied forces around the world, including the U.S., Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Italy and Germany.
Raytheon ELCAN Optical Technologies, also simply ELCAN (Ernst Leitz CANada), is a Canadian optics and electronics manufacturing company owned by defense contractor RTX Corporation, currently based in Midland, Ontario. ELCAN produces optical devices geared towards both civilian and military markets, and their products are sold through Armament Technology Inc. based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and associated channels of dealers. ELCAN is perhaps best known for making the prismatic C79 optical sight that is widely used on the Diemaco C7, FN MINIMI, FN MAG and CZ-805 BREN families of firearms. The 3.4×28 C79 is not designed as a sniper sight per se, but is rather intended to be mounted on a variety of service rifles used by regular infantrymen as well as designated marksmen.
