The FLIR is a passive infra red sensing camera with 15x magnification and high resolution (0.17 mrad @ NFOV).  It is internally cooled and uses the 8-12 micron wavelength.  The FLIR provides excellent day/night detection capabilities.  Detections have been made as far as 19 kilometers at the National Training Center and identification ranges vary between 5 and 9 kilometers.

The MELIOS laser range finder provides a range finding capability beyond 10 kilometers, with accuracies to +-5meters. The MELIOS is eye safe and can fire once every six seconds.  The returns are plotted on a map underlay.

The color camera is a wide Field-of View sensor, intended to assist operators in orienting themselves and to help distinguish questionable images.  The color camera uses 12x magnification and is most useful during the day.  The black and white camera uses 28x magnification and is intended to provide improved identification during daylight conditions.

The operators workstation integrates all these sensors.  The workstation has a joystick for panning and tilting the sensors, a map display / sensor control terminal, 2 video monitors, and 2 ruggedized Hi-8 video recorders.  The map display shows areas of interest, the Night Stalkers location, and the direction the sensors are pointed.  As the radar detects targets they are displayed as icons on the map.  The range finder plots target locations on the map display, ensuring redundancy for accurate grids to targets and for plotting non-moving targets.  8 digit grid coordinates are collected simply by placing the cursor over
the icon.

An image transmission system allows the operator to transmit a spot report and still image of the target to a Tactical Operations Center via FM radio.  The image is transmitted in NITF format and may be saved to 3.5" floppy disk for further analysis while the system continues surveillance.

The Night Stalker has been designed with open ended architecture (standard interfaces) to facilitate quick replacement, upgrades and testing of a wide variety of sensors.

The system deployed to 9 NTC rotations.  It successfully and repeatedly fulfilled 5 tactical functions:
     a.  Acquisition and Tracking - The Night Stalker acquired and tracked light and heavy
          vehicles out to 25 kilometers.  The system tracked personnel targets out to 8 kilometers.
     b.  Surveillance - The Night Stalker crew monitored targets out to 20 kilometers.
     c.  Targeting - Night Stalker crews called for fire several times at the NTC.  Operators    were effectively able to call for fire on targets up to 22 kilometers away both by themselves and when task-organized with a forward observer.
     d.  Force Protection - The Night Stalker performed force protection by overwatch.  Crews would monitor the movements of friendly scout and COLT teams and vector them into or away from enemy forces, depending on the mission.
     e.  Tip-Off and Confirmation from other collection assets - On several occasions the system helped to confirm suspected enemy targets identified by SIGINT assets.