In today’s battlefield theatres bright sunlight with light intensities with values of above 100.000lx (lm/m²) are the standard. But in order to protect forces against, e.g. IED threats fully armoured vehicles, such as APCs are required to minimise exposure.
There is a clear mismatch between environmental conditions and crew awareness especially with bright light intensities. Today´s vehicle cabin ambient lighting tend to be static solutions, sometimes dimmable, controlled either by crew or by commander. Blackout lighting in either blue or red are common further integration options.
Those cabin light solutions lack today´s requirements for fast and secure operations. Advanced sensors for infantrymen give a clear advantage at night, but during daylight fighting the advantage often lies with the enemy.
One danger that can easily be avoided is the eye adaption effect when dismounting the relatively dark interior of an APC. Often this is one of the most dangerous situations on the battlefield until the close area behind the vehicle has been secured.
The mismatch between the interior and exterior light conditions, when leaving the vehicle, tend to blind soldiers for a few seconds which can result in strategic drawbacks or even casualties.
The Light Conditioning System (LCS) of KTK Kommunikationstechnik is a microcontroller based ambient cabin light solution for APCs which outperforms current solutions available on the market.
Besides basic lighting capabilities (main and blackout lighting) the LCS consists of a pre-adapting light functionality. Based on crew or commander decisions the interior light conditions within the vehicle are adapted to the exterior light conditions. By this means the eye adaption effect, especially the light adaption will be optimized. The process of adapting the light condition will take approximately 5 minutes to comply with clinical findings available.
For that purpose the vehicle needs to be equipped with an external light sensor on the hull of the vehicle which measures exterior light intensity. The interior high performance cabin lights (which are equipped with a light sensor as well) are used to illuminate the interior of the vehicle. The centralized system control will match both exterior and interior luminance levels to nearly equalize to each other. The system can be integrated into an overall vehicle architecture as it supports RS422 or CAN bus.
In combination with further optical local situational awareness solutions the dismounted soldier is gaining a combat advantage for current battlefield threats.
A prototype of the Light Conditioning System (LCS) is available at Eurosatory at booth J621.