Vectronix Wins Swiss-French Innovation Award

The Swiss-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry organizes annual awards for companies from these two countries for outstanding achievements in several categories. The jury this year was especially impressed with the joint work by French company Sagem and Vectronix, its wholly-owned Swiss subsidiary, who created a truly innovative product: the STERNA target locator, featuring a north finder based on hemispherical resonator gyro (HRG) technology.

The STERNA Target Locator

Sagem designs high-performance navigation systems for air, land and naval applications. It is one of the few companies in the world that masters the technologies needed for hemispherical resonator gyros, which combine high performance with light weight and reduced power consumption for applications demanding very accurate navigation and guidance.

Vectronix identified the exceptional value offered by Sagem's HRG technology and adapted it to the specific needs of its own customers. STERNA is the first and only fully portable target location solution offering reliable and accurate determination of true north, without a magnetic compass or GPS receiver. The system provides reliable performance even in magnetically disturbed environments or completely enclosed rooms. STERNA's small size and light weight, combined with an attractive price, makes it the ideal solution for both the defense industry (forward observers, airborne fire support units, etc.) and civil applications.

"We developed this truly innovative solution by drawing on Sagem's technological expertise," said Jean Harter, Chief Executive Officer of Vectronix: “Our teams in France and Switzerland worked together very closely to make this product a success”.

Since its market introduction in 2011, STERNA has set a new standard for the accurate determination of true north, even under the harshest environmental conditions. In fact, the U.S. Army has already ordered the STERNA target location system.