DSEI 2025: OpenWorks unveils the Vision Pace targeting system

On 10 September 2025, at the DSEI 2025 exhibition, Northumberland-based company OpenWorks Engineering displayed their new Vision Pace stabilised targeting system, onto which various sensors and effectors could be mounted. The primary missions being targeted by company marketing are the counter-unmanned aerial vehicle (C-UAV) and very short-range air defence (VSHORAD) roles. Nicola Irving, OpenWorks’ Head of Strategic Marketing and Communication, stated that the company had already sold their first systems, to two customers within NATO.

OpenWorks had several configurations of the Vision Pace on display, including the Rapid Deployment Kit, a field-portable standalone configuration designed for remote emplacement. This was equipped with OpenWorks’ own day and thermal optoelectronic sights. A second version was shown integrated with Thales’ TrueHunter day and thermal optoelectronic sight, and Echodyne’s EchoShield Ku-band radar. The latter is able to track small UAVs such as quadcopters at around 3 km, or larger multirotor copters at around 5.3 km.

Irving explained that the Vision Pace is built around a direct drive, low-friction dynamic positioner, onto which various sensors and effectors could be mounted. The dynamic positioner comprises the base, providing traverse through 360°, and the elevation component, providing elevation through ±90° of vertical. The positioner weighs 40 kg, and can mount payloads weighing up to a total of 65 kg in its current build. This payload capacity would be sufficient for small arms and some other forms of lightweight effector, however ESD enquired whether a larger model was in the works. To this, Irving responded: “We recognise that there are requirements for a larger model and it is something we are actively considering to enable the integration of additional payloads.”

Although a larger model is not yet available, elsewhere at the show UK company MSI demonstrated that Vision Pace could already be integrated with larger effectors if used in a configuration where the sight is decoupled from the armament. Using this approach, MSI (which has developed similar decoupled configurations in the past), demonstrated vision pace integrated with a 20 mm Gatling cannon and the Northrop Grumman Mk44 Bushmaster II 30 mm automatic cannon.

Irving noted that a particular standout feature of the dynamic positioner is its high pointing accuracy. According to the manufacturer’s specifications, the positioner is able to achieve an actuator resolution of 0.0005 mrad (milliradians), and stabilisation “better than 0.1 mrad”. Irving explained that part of the reason such accuracy is possible is due to the elevation component of the positioner being milled from a single solid block of metal. Presumably, using a solid piece to mount the components would diminish sources of jitter (such as due to vibration or temperature variation), which may be introduced wherever two or more pieces are joined together.

Such high levels of pointing accuracy are particularly valuable for roles wherever very high levels of accuracy are paramount, a case in point being high energy laser (HEL) applications, where optical jitter is detrimental to their operation, particularly over longer ranges where even slight inaccuracies can translate into significant drift off the point being targeted. This drift in turn can increase the average time needed to conduct an engagement, since the small laser spot used by most HELs would move around slightly over the target surface, wasting some of its energy off the targeted point. Greater pointing accuracy would therefore translate into less movement of the laser spot, which in turn could enable shorter engagements, and, since jitter becomes increasingly problematic with distance to target, potentially a greater effective range for the weapon.

Regarding the potential for integration with third-party sensors and effectors, Irving stated “Whilst we take a very configurable approach, there’s a requirement to remain balanced, which we work hard to achieve, in order to support very highly precise positional accuracy.” While on the software side, “OpenWorks has its artificial intelligence, its own ability to fuse data inputs, including from the radar”, Irving explained, adding that the company was able to work with third-party manufacturers to use their software, depending on customer requirement.

Mark Cazalet