An unidentified NATO country has ordered a multi-spectral vision system for helicopter pilots from Israel's Elbit Systems.

The BrightNite systems are worth $17 million and will be supplied over a 30-month period.

"We are proud to have won this contract which enables helicopter pilots to gain highly advanced operational capabilities by flying in more than 90 percent of the nights and in adverse weather conditions," said Bezhalel "Butzi" Machlis, president and chief executive officer of Elbit Systems. "The BrightNite revolutionary solution is suitable for a variety of missions, such as Special Forces and search and rescue. Given the important role helicopters are playing in the modern battlefield and the necessity of operating at night, we hope other customers will follow this selection by a NATO country's air force."

Elbit said BrightNite is a multi-spectral end-to-end panoramic piloting solution that delivers the landscape scenery directly to both eyes of the pilot, including 2D flight symbology and 3D mission symbology, enabling intuitive head-up, eyes-out orientation flight in pitch dark and other low-visibility landing conditions.

The scenery picture is driven from the multi-spectral sensor which fuses multiple day and night cameras into "one crystal clear very intuitive piloting" picture, which is projected onto a pilot's helmet visor, regardless of outer light conditions.