Community news

Discover the latest news on the Sophie Users’Club blog! Our articles and guides give you the opportunity to discover Thales’ flagship dismounted soldier optronic solutions.

  • The importance of night vision and the impact of optronics on military strategy

    The importance of night vision and the impact of optronics on military strategy

    Anthony Guesnier, CMI manager for Thales’s optronics business has navigated the military and engineering worlds for over three decades. We asked him to share his operational experience and technical insights to explain how advances in the field of night vision are having a profound impact on contemporary military operations…

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  • Why choose Thales for your NVGs? Focus on the Augmented+ Family

    Why choose Thales for your NVGs? Focus on the Augmented+ Family

    Custom-designed for dismounted soldiers and specialised units, Augmented+ night vision goggles represent the future of night vision and offer outstanding features that enhance the safety and efficiency of your armed forces. Connectivity to the soldier system: Our Minie-D and Minie-D/IR binoculars are designed to integrate seamlessly with modern soldier systems so that crucial information can be shared with other equipment and other…

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  • Everything you need to know about the revolutionary XTRAIM all-in-one weapon sight

    Everything you need to know about the revolutionary XTRAIM all-in-one weapon sight

    Thales XTRAIM all-in-one weapon sight vs clip-on-based solutions For many years, the commonest solution for incorporating thermal imaging capabilities (such as decamouflage) into weapon sights was to add a clip-on solution in front of a reflex (red dot) sight or a night vision goggle (NVG). Although operationally viable, such solutions have inherent limitations which prevent…

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  • Sophie ULTIMA and Sophie OPTIMA: your best allies in the field

    Sophie ULTIMA and Sophie OPTIMA: your best allies in the field

    Smaller, lighter, more energy-efficient products offer the best response to operational requirements, reducing the burden on the soldier, simplifying logistics and helping to minimise the use of natural resources. The SwaP approach is perfectly aligned with eco-design objectives, which aim to reduce the environmental impact of products throughout their life cycle, from the use of…

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  • XTRAIM: the new all-in-one day/night weapon sight for Special Forces

    XTRAIM: the new all-in-one day/night weapon sight for Special Forces

    Thales’s revolutionary XTRAIM weapon sight gives Special Forces and dismounted soldiers the flexibility and enhanced survivability they need to complete complex missions in challenging, fast-changing environments, thanks to a unique patented architecture and an array of features tailored to users’ essential needs. A group of insurgents is hiding out in a large shuttered farmhouse, 300…

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  • XTRAIM: the new all-in-one day/night weapon sight for dismounted soldiers

    XTRAIM: the new all-in-one day/night weapon sight for dismounted soldiers

    Thales’s revolutionary XTRAIM weapon sight brings powerful new capabilities for every team member, boosting survivability and mission effectiveness and interfacing easily with night vision goggles. The dismounted patrol steps out into the clear, moonless night. The patrol leader, has hammered home the message to his platoon that ambushes can happen in an isolated rural area…

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  • A behind-the-scenes look at the development of Thales’ soldier optronics solutions

    A behind-the-scenes look at the development of Thales’ soldier optronics solutions

    Dismounted soldiers in today’s theatres of operations face extremely complex, fast-moving situations, ranging from insurgencies to high-intensity conflict against increasingly well-equipped adversaries. In such contexts, improved situational awareness is key by day and night to faster and more accurate decision-making by soldiers, and Thales’s night vision goggles (NVGs) play a valuable role in meeting these…

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  • Spy’Ranger: your flying eyes in high intensity conflicts

    Spy’Ranger: your flying eyes in high intensity conflicts

    The nature of conflict is shifting again. The resurgence of rivalries between major powers is bringing near-peer adversaries back into the battlefield, together with more technologically advanced threats and the increased likelihood of saturating attacks. In this context, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), such as those of the Spy’Ranger family, are no longer just a key…

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  • Cyber threats: the new weapon in all theaters of operation

    Cyber threats: the new weapon in all theaters of operation

    Land optronics: Technological disruptions give the tactical advantage In recent decades, the battlefield has met deep technological evolutions, particularly in optronic devices, which have faced important disruptions. In fact, we find more and more traditional land optronics in the field, that malicious forces are using against allied forces. This is why the technology level is…

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  • How to choose the right image intensifier tubes for Night Vision Goggles?

    How to choose the right image intensifier tubes for Night Vision Goggles?

    A new white paper from Thales compares and contrasts the different image intensifier tube technologies used in high-performance night vision goggles (NVGs). Tubes with a glass output window emerge favourably from the comparison. Despite their greater optical complexity compared with twisted fibre tubes (due to the need for image reversal), they offer a number of…

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  • NELLIE NightRise: the next-gen Night Vision Goggles

    NELLIE NightRise: the next-gen Night Vision Goggles

    « While mastering the complete soldier sensors suite* including tactical communications, Thales aims at stretching the limits of the optronics for soldiers paradigm: from an addition of commodities to an ecosystem of disruptive collaborative sensors. As a key asset of the soldier suite and the first binocular device among the new Thales Night Vision Goggles…

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  • The new Sophie 4 Family support solutions

    The new Sophie 4 Family support solutions

    Sophie support solutions: lean and agile Thermal imaging systems are packed full of precision mechanics, delicately tuned optics, electronic components and other parts that need repairing, replacing or upgrading after a certain number of hours in use. To perform as well as the day they were unpacked, they need to be maintained by specialists —…

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  • Nellie NightRise: the ultimate user experien in darkness

    Nellie NightRise: the ultimate user experien in darkness

    Driving at night can be scary at the best of times. Recent research in the UK found that almost a third of Britain’s 38 million drivers are too scared to take the wheel after dark. Reduced visibility is an obvious danger — you can’t see as far, it’s harder to judge speed and distance, and…

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  • O-NYX Night Vision Goggles: small equipment, big winner

    O-NYX Night Vision Goggles: small equipment, big winner

    Special forces are no longer the only boots on the ground needing high-performance night vision equipment. In the last 20 years, infantry troops deployed in every type of conventional and asymmetric conflict have also come to depend on their night vision goggles to stay ahead of the action and keep themselves safe. And yet helmet-mounted…

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  • Seeing further. Fighting smarter.

    Seeing further. Fighting smarter.

    Modern fighting forces are protected by astonishingly sophisticated technology. But, sometimes, there’s a heavy price to pay. Death and injury from ‘friendly fire’ has been an inescapable consequence of war from as long ago as 1471 AD. One of the earliest recorded instances was the during the War of the Roses in England, when a…

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