Thales’s Scorpion® Helmet Mounted Sight and Display (HMSD) System was selected by Airbus Helicopters for production and integration into its future Helicopter Weapons Systems, following a full and open competition. Scorpion will therefore be an off-the-shelf product for all new Airbus helicopters platforms or upgrade retrofits.

Scorpion provides full color symbology and video for day and night missions, in addition to targeting, sensor video, and potentially Degraded Visual Environment (DVE) imagery giving armed helicopters considerably improved mission situational awareness and effectiveness. It decreases combat helicopter pilot workload, facilitates crew exchange during the most critical phases of the mission and helps to improved safety and security levels. Scorpion is also interchangeable between helmets/pilots, thereby reducing the total numbers needed for any given fleet. Scorpion utilises the unique and patented Hybrid Optical based Inertial Tracking (HOBiT) system which ensures the highest accuracy and reliability with absolutely minimal intrusion into the cockpit. For night missions, Scorpion operates seamlessly with standard issue Night Vision Goggles (NVG) providing the same quality combined full color symbology/video along with NVG imagery.

Pete Roney, Thales Visionix* President said, “our Scorpion HMSD System represents the leading edge of the HMSD technology and has been supplied and successfully implemented in various demanding applications.”

The system is already fielded on multiple platforms in the USA and is currently being actively evaluated by many other customers. “This success is attributable to our superior and innovative Scorpion helmet product offering, matching Airbus Helicopters’ requirements, which are a benchmark within the helicopter market,” Roney said.

“The Scorpion HMSD system has been specially designed for ease of installation to new platforms or upgrade retrofits, providing the customer with the lowest overall cost of integration and cost of ownership.”

Yves Joannic, Thales VP in charge of helicopter avionics business