Bertin Instruments CBRN, Gas Detection and Optronics Solutions for the Military Industry

Bertin Instruments, a brand of CNIM Group, has been one of the French leading experts in the field of innovation for defence and homeland security, industrial safety and environment for 60 years, with more than 700 employees, mostly composed of engineers.

Through the acquisition of Saphymo in 2015, Bertin Instruments strengthened its scientific instrumentation and systems division to become the only French industrialist offering a full range of solutions in optronics and for the detection and identification of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats.

Chemical threat detection with the Second Sight® MS

The Second Sight MS stand-off chemical gas cloud detector is compact, lightweight and modular. Specially designed for military and civil protection operations, this camera locates suspicious gas clouds for an early warning and real-time visualisation.

With its infrared sensor, the system shows as an overlay where dangerous gases (toxic industrial gases or chemical warfare agents, such as nerve gases or vesicants) are developing. Second Sight can locate and identify the type of gas and measure its concentration. Thanks to its unique gas X-feature, it also detects gas that hasn’t been registered in the database, which is ideal when gases are impure, mixed or unknown.

Biological threat detection with the Coriolis® Recon

Coriolis Recon is a portable, light and ruggedized bio-air sampler designed for detection of biological warfare agents. Dedicated to first responders or CBRN teams, this device can be quickly deployed when a biological attack might have occurred.

The Coriolis Recon has been conceived to collect large concentrations of aerosols in a breathable range of 0.5µm to 10µm, with an air flow rate at 600l/min, in order to be more representative of the environment than more traditional bio-aerosol samplers.

Due to its ability to collect bio-aerosol particles into a liquid, this system can be used with rapid identification techniques for biological agents (immunoassay, PCR, etc), providing an early warning of aerosolised biological warfare agents.

Radiological and Nuclear threat detection with Saphymo’s expertise

Thanks to Saphymo’s strong expertise, Bertin Instruments developed and optimised radiological and nuclear equipment, providing state-of-the-art instrumentation to the customer for the detection of ionising radiation (alpha, beta, gamma, neutron).

Our products for personal protection, as well as process and environmental monitoring are suitable for homeland security, emergency preparedness and defence. Our dosimeters, dose rate and survey meters are dedicated to preventive and response purposes before and during radiological incidents. For example, SaphyRAD MS, our latest multiprobe contamination meter has been designed to be used in harsh environments, during military and first responders’ operations.

Moreover, our environmental radiation monitoring systems include data transmission that is compatible with emergency situations. Bertin Instruments also provides mobile and quick deployment solutions such as the GammaTRACER Spider, which is a gamma monitoring probe using a self-deployable system to reduce the first responders’ exposure in emergency situation.

Optronic solutions for the military

One of our latest ranges offers tactical optronic equipment for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering during Homeland Security and Military operations, and to protect and monitor high-risk hotspots. In 2016, Bertin Instruments in partnership with Photonis launched FusionSight®, a new unique ocular providing smart fusion of colour low-light and thermal vision to ensure threat and target accurate detection.

Specially developed to meet the infantry chiefs and special forces’ requirements, this reliable handled device has proven its efficiency on the field during operations facing hidden and camouflaged enemies, and under limited visibility conditions. In the same range, Bertin Instruments developed PeriSight®, a network of imaging sensor modules for vehicle that can offer multiple viewing channels such as colour low-light and thermal.

PeriSight® modules can provide night and day 360° surveillance in a short range in order to enhance land situation awareness and driver vision. The product is features several fields of view options throughout vehicle to reduce vulnerability of hidden.