Vision Tech Lands $2M Navy Contract

Rogers-based Vision Technologies Inc. has won a $2 million U.S. Navy contract renewal for 2005.

Vision Technologies develops and manufactures industrial-strength digital cameras for aviation, security and naval applications.

Chuck Thompson, vice president of Vision Technologies, said the Navy will have about 110 of its cameras on board seven ships by the end of this year. Those cameras aren’t necessarily included in the 2005 contract, he said.

The Navy is looking at a variety of uses for Vision’s cameras, Thompson said, including keeping a virtual eye on a ship’s hull and machinery integrity.

The Navy’s cameras have a “retail” price of about $1,200 to $1,300 each, Thompson said.

The company has 17 patents and eight pending patents. It started making cameras for the medical field, and shifted to avionic in 1998, but has been working on naval applications for about three years.

Vision Technologies is also exploring the security market and has 32 cameras on a building in Washington, D.C., Thompson said.

Security is a good place to be right now, he said.