Industry Interview: Schott Defense
GCT 2010 Volume: 1 Issue: 2 (August)
Scott Custer
Executive Vice President, Schott Defense
President & CEO, Schott DiamondView Armor Products LLC
Q: What is Schott’s history?
A: Schott is a world recognized leader in providing specialty glass solutions for over 125 years. Starting in the 1970s, we brought our expertise to the U.S. defense industry. Since then, we have expanded our products to match the wide-ranging and growing needs of the defense and security markets.
Q: What areas of the defense market do you serve?
A: Our motto, “By Land. By Air. By Sea. By Schott,” states it best. We are dedicated to being the premier provider of top-notch defense solutions, whether it’s transparent armor for vehicles, fiber optics for night vision, or image sensors for underwater surveillance systems.
To serve the diverse defense and security market, our business is primarily split into four main areas: electronic packaging, advanced optics, lighting and imaging, and protection. We also have some unique pharmaceutical packaging and solar solutions for the defense market.
Q: How do these four areas differ and what products do they offer?
A: Each area provides something unique to its market sector, but our common goal among all four units is to deliver market-differentiating products to best serve our nation’s men and women in government service.
Our Electronic Packaging team’s core technologies are glass-to-metal and ceramic-to-metal seals. Using superior technological know-how, Schott’s hermetic packages are vacuum tight and more reliable than plastic seals. Our nuclear penetrators have a noteworthy 60-year life cycle and have been used for nuclear containment in more than 50 power plants and submarines. This level of dependability makes our packages ideal for several military applications, including sensors, thermal battery covers, connectors, ordnance, opto-electronics, laser diodes, guidance systems and more.
Our Advanced Optics team focuses its expertise on developing infrared glass for night vision compatible illumination, laser glass used in high power applications, and glass-ceramic mirrors for surveillance systems. Material purity is a key element in producing high-quality military and security glass. By producing glass with consistent mechanical, chemical and physical qualities, our engineers can supply glass capable of lasing at new wavelengths that are safer for the eyes of its users. In addition, this “eye-safe” glass is used in range-finding applications at distances as great as 50 kilometers.
In the Lighting and Imaging group, we develop smaller, lighter and more effective capabilities that improve night vision, displays and other technologies. We are the largest provider of night vision fiber optics to the military. Last fall, we unveiled our multipoint imaging system, which is well-suited for remote surveillance applications. The fiber opticbased image assembler enables a digital camera to capture individual images and compile them to create a panoramic field of view. The assembler’s simple design and low power consumption allow this technology to be used in a variety of platforms, such as unmanned aerial, underwater and ground vehicles. Ultimately, we provide a lighter and easier-to-use solution because our system doesn’t need multiple cameras to capture multiple images.
Finally, there’s our Protection division. Schott meets the military’s demand for armor that is lighter, but still offers the ballistic qualities that keep our warfighters safe. Our armored window systems became prominent in 2009, when Oshkosh selected us for their MRAP allterrain vehicle [M-ATV] contract. To date, we have provided soldiers in Afghanistan with thousands of M-ATV transparent armor windows that increase protection levels and decrease life cycle costs, as they are less prone to discoloration and delamination.
Q: What expertise does Schott bring to the defense industry?
A: Schott takes pride in its long history of innovation cultivated through precise and award-winning engineering. In the last year, we were named a Supplier of Excellence for our night vision systems by ITT and were awarded the Nuclear Quality Assurance NQA-1, the globally recognized world-class quality standard issued by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for our electrical penetration assemblies. In an industry where failure is not an option, our customers know they can count on the reliability of Schott’s products.
Our thirst for innovation brought us to the Edge Innovation Network, a collaborative, open-environment initiative enabling industry and academia to work together to enhance the delivery cycle of new technologies and bring innovative capabilities to warfighters and first responders.
Annually, Schott dedicates 800 staff members to research and development to continue innovating. This innovation allows us to provide our customers with specialized products that meet the unique needs of today’s military. With our domestic R&D, manufacturing and engineering sites, we are poised to meet the challenges of the defense and security industry in the future. ♦