Gooch & Housego partners with Optex to supply acrylic optics
Advanced photonics company Gooch & Housego (G&H; Ilminster, England) is partnering with Optex Systems (Richardson, TX) for the supply of acrylic-based sighting system technology to meet European customer requirements for a total package single-technology source supply.
G&H designs and manufactures periscopes and sighting systems for armored fighting vehicles under the Kent brand. With a strong footprint in Europe and Asia, G&H supplies glass-based products for both periscope external viewing and system sensor-based imaging by commanders, drivers, and gunners. Combining Optex acrylic periscope products with G&H’s next-generation glass periscope hardware portfolio enables G&H to meet all European market cost, material, and technology requirements.
Frank Weiss, head of G&H Aerospace and Defense, said “Being able to include EAR (non-ITAR), designated acrylic commodity products in addition to glass-based periscope technology to the European market is significant. We aim to supply our customers with the products they need to comply with SWaP-C specifications. In some circumstances, these requirements mean an acrylic product is needed. Being in this strong position to meet our customer needs means we can increase the value we offer with an extended range of solutions.”
Danny Schoening, CEO of Optex Systems, added, “We have been waiting for the proper timing and the correct partner to expand into the European markets, and are pleased to be launching this initiative with G&H, a leading international supplier of unity vision periscopes, vehicle sights and related equipment for armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) such as tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armoured personnel carriers. G&H, under the Kent brand, has been a strategic supplier to Optex for over 10 years and this partnership now provides an opening for Optex periscope products in Europe. We look to leverage their well established distribution channels in Europe, and collaboratively, we will align those customer’s applications with the appropriate technology.”
SOURCE: Gooch & Housego; https://gandh.com/gh-announces-optex-partnership/
About the Author
Gail Overton
Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.