IAV 2025: Thales reveals thousands of sales, British Army consideration for XTraim sight

Thales' XTraim red dot and IR sight, seen at the International Armoured Vehicles (IAV) 2025 conference in Farnborough. (Janes/Tom Barton)

Thales is entering its extra-aim (XTraim) day/night assault rifle sight for possible procurement by the British Army, the company told Janes at Defence iQ's International Armoured Vehicles (IAV) 2025 conference held in Farnborough from 21 to 23 January.

Running concurrently with Project Grayburn to replace the British Army's SA80, Project Upham is the search for sights to suit the various assault rifle variants that emerge. Thales said it is putting its XTraim sight forward for Project Upham, which could yield a decision in the third or fourth quarter of 2026.

Thales' XTraim is both a digital architecture and a sighting system, with a data power rail and bit processing on the weapon, Bob Vowles, business development director at Thales, told Janes . It features a laser target marker and low-level communications using low probability of interception/low probability of detection (LPI/LPD) waveforms.

The sights work with an infrared (IR) sensor projecting image enhancements onto a direct view optic above. This gives the same image day or night, combining a reflex red-dot sight with its IR imaging to pick out targets from the background, which Thales calls a de-camouflage function.

The display can have different reticules, from a circle to cross-hairs or a dot. Vowles said low size, weight, and power (SWaP) considerations were key in the design, with a resulting 350 g unit (530 g including battery) able to run for eight hours on full IR on its batteries, or two days with a reticule only.

Through the sighting system a possible target can be detected at 800 m, and a human identified at 400–600 m.