The Italian Ministry of Defense has concluded procurement, in international competition, of an optical sight and awarded the Swedish company Aimpoint AB a contract to supply a passive Red Dot Sight system to the Italian Army.
The contract is for at least 24,000 Red Dot Sights, CompM2 ACIES, to be supplied over a two and a half year period between 2004 and 2006. The award to Aimpoint is a result of rigorous testing and evaluations by the Italian authorities to define and procure the best suitable aiming device in order to improve the capabilities of the Italian soldier.
“This contract with the Italian MoD is one of the largest single contracts for small arms optical sights in the world,” says Lennart Ljungfelt, president of Aimpoint AB.
The first large military procurement of Aimpoint sights was by the US Army. Following nearly two years of extensive laboratory and field testing of available sighting devices, Aimpoint was awarded a contract in 1997. Since that time, the M68 sight has been continuously improved and Aimpoint has delivered over 150,000 of these sights to US military forces. Aimpoint continues to receive additional orders as new units are equipped.
In late 2002, Aimpoint was awarded a contract to deliver at least 50.000 sights to the Swedish Defense Forces during 2004 and 2005.
Aimpoint sights were originally developed for use by hunters, and the same qualities that make these sights excellent hunting tools make them the best choice for military small arms applications. Aimpoint sights are extremely rugged, weatherproof and allow fast, accurate aiming.