Proceedings Article | 9 May 2009
KEYWORDS: LCDs, Military display technology, CRTs, Heads up displays, Defense and security, Commercial off the shelf technology, Light emitting diodes, Flat panel displays, Defense technologies, Plasma
The military display market is analyzed in terms of all fully electronic and many electro-mechanical displays used on
combat platforms across all DOD Services. The military market for displays is defined by parameters such as active area,
bezel-to-bezel measurement and technology. Other characteristics such as luminance, contrast ratio, gray levels, resolution,
viewing angle, color, video capability, and night vision imaging system compatibility are noted. This study takes into
account all displays that are either installed or funded for installation. In some cases, planned displays are also included.
Display sizes having aggregate defense applications of 5,000 units or greater and having DOD applications across 10 or
more platform fleets, are tabulated. The issue of size commonality is addressed where distribution of active area across
platform fleets, individually, in groups of two through nine, and ten or more, is illustrated. Military displays are also
analyzed by technology, where total quantities of such displays are broken out into CRT, LCD, AMLCD, EM, LED,
Incandescent, Plasma and TFEL percentages. Custom, versus rugged commercial, versus commercial off-the-shelf
designs are contrasted. High and low information content designs are identified. Displays for several high-profile
military programs are discussed, to include both technical specifications and program history. This defense-wide study,
an up-date to our paper delivered April 2006, documents 642 weapons system platforms comprising 1,194,199 displays
in 1,217 sizes, of which 1,197 are direct-view and 20 are virtual-view. Defense display sizes range from 0.082 in..2 to
10,625 in.2 in 18 technologies, mostly flat panel display (FPD) technologies based on thin-film transistor active matrix
liquid crystal displays (TFT AM LCD), with cathode ray tube (CRT) second and dropping rapidly. This paper provides
an overview of the DOD display market, allowing government, academia and industry highlights of information provided in
the "Military Display Market: Fifth Comprehensive Edition" technical report.
