Kopin Receives $9Million Order for Thermal Weapon Sight Program
June 23 2014 - 7:00AM
Business Wire
Options Could Increase the Order to
$13Million
Kopin® Corporation (NASDAQ:KOPN), the largest U.S. developer of
display systems for wearable technologies and military
applications, today announced it has received a $9Million order for
display modules in support of the U.S. Army’s Thermal Weapon Sight
(TWS) program. This urgent order was placed by a major customer to
replace a competing display technology which was not able to meet
the stringent military specifications. As a result of this new
order, we expect our revenue for 2014 will be in the range of
$24Million to $28Million, an increase of $6Million from the earlier
projection.
“Dismounted soldier environments such as TWS are the harshest
environments for any product to endure,” stated Michael Presz, the
Company’s Vice President of Government Programs. “We were informed
that reliability issues were discovered with the alternative
display technology during extensive testing. Our unique AMLCD
technology, however, has demonstrated proven performance and
reliability for the TWS program in over 15 years of deployment.
Kopin has delivered more than 200,000 display units to the TWS
program, either in component form, in a display module or as a
complete eyepiece assembly, with essentially zero product
returns.”
This urgent new order calls for the immediate delivery of
Kopin’s VGA-resolution display modules, with continued production
over the next 9 months. The customer has requested additional
options which could continue production well into 2015 and increase
the order to over $13 million if fully exercised.
“In addition to wearable technology, our defense business, based
on very related technology, continues to be an important element of
our overall mobile system strategy,” said Kopin President and Chief
Executive Officer Dr. John C. C. Fan. “With our great success in
the TWS program, we have now recorded over $300Million in total
revenues from the defense sector. We believe the future in defense
is tied to the development of the next-generation weapon sight
technology. Kopin’s smart weapon sight system, consisting of
Kopin’s ultra-high-brightness overlay display, Kopin’s see-through
optics and symbology generator together with a laser-range-finder
and ballistic calculator, provides critical targeting information
to soldiers, day or night, through the use of augmented reality
overlaid in a direct-view optical scope. We believe this
patent-pending smart weapon sight, which can be installed on
millions of existing commercial and military weapon sights
worldwide, represents a game changer and an even bigger revenue
opportunity for our defense business.”
“Our overlay display systems for smart weapon sights can deliver
brightness in excess of 5,000 ft-Lambert (or about 17,000 nits) for
bright daytime use or very low brightness of 0.01 ft-Lambert for
totally dark environments,” continued Dr. Fan. “This ultra-high
brightness display system including the symbology generator
consumes only 200 mW displaying overlay symbology at 3,000
ft-Lambert (about 10,000 nits) brightness, which no other imaging
system in the world can match. We expect our proprietary display
technology to continue improving and breaking performance barriers,
which will benefit both the wearable and military
applications.”
About Kopin
Kopin is a leading developer and provider of innovative wearable
technologies and solutions. Kopin’s technology portfolio includes
ultra-small displays, optics, speech enhancement technology,
software, low-power chipsets, and ergonomically designed headset
computing systems. Kopin's proprietary components and technology
are protected by more than 200 global patents and patents pending.
For more information, please visit Kopin's website at
www.kopin.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Statements in this news release may be considered
“forward-looking” statements under the “Safe Harbor” provisions of
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include
statements relating to the $9M production order for the U.S. Army’s
Thermal Weapon Sight program which is expected to be fulfilled over
a 9 month period; our expectation that our 2014 revenue will be
increased to $24 million – $28 million; our customer’s options
which can increase this order to approximately $13 million if fully
exercised; our development of the next-generation weapon sight
which will provide critical targeting information to soldiers, day
or night, through the use of augmented reality overlaid on a
direct-view optical scope; our expectation that the next-generation
weapon sight represents a game changer for the US military and a
large revenue opportunity for our defense business; and the
expectation that our display technology will keep on improving and
breaking performance barriers, which will benefit both wearable and
military applications. These statements involve a number of risks
and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements.
These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, our
eyepiece products lose qualification by the U.S. Army, the thermal
weapon sight program could be cancelled, manufacturing, marketing
or other issues that may prevent either the production, adoption or
rapid acceptance of products; the customer may not exercise the
options; new technologies may be adopted which replace LCD
technologies, we may not be able to develop a scope that works in
both day and night conditions, if we are able to develop a scope
that works in day and night conditions there may be no demand for
it, it may not be manufacturable or manufactured in a cost
competitive way; competitive products and pricing; the loss of
significant customers; the potential that costs to produce the
Company’s microdisplay technology will increase significantly, or
that yields will decline; the potential that military programs
involving Kopin’s products will be delayed or cancelled; the
potential that the Company’s military customers might be unable to
ramp production volumes of their products; manufacturing delays,
technical issues, economic conditions or external factors that may
prevent the Company from achieving its forecasts; and other risk
factors and cautionary statements listed in the Company’s periodic
reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K for
the 12 months ended December 28, 2013, and the Company’s subsequent
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not
place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak
only as of the date on which they are made. The Company undertakes
no responsibility to update any of these forward-looking statements
to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this
report.
Kopin Sales & MarketingJason Dingle, 508-870-5959Director of
Business Developmentjdingle@kopin.comorInvestor RelationsRichard
Sneider, 508-870-5959CFOrsneider@kopin.comorMedia
InquiriesEdelmanPearson Cummings,
202-326-1701pearson.cummings@edelman.com
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