Patent ID: 8754943

Claim:
A method for modifying an armored vehicle having armor with existing holes carrying pass-through therein to provide a tail light assembly that when connected provides stealth situational awareness to troops exiting said armored vehicle, comprising the steps of: modifying as a retrofit package an existing tail light assembly originally provided on an armored vehicle having armor with existing holes carrying pass-throughs therein for electrical connections through the armor, the holes and pass-throughs having locations and sizes designed to preserve armor integrity so as to protect against penetration to the inside of the armored vehicle, said tail light assembly including front and back clamshells with an aperture in the front clamshell and wide angle infrared thermal imaging camera mounted in the aperture for detecting the thermal signature of troops or apparatus in the vicinity of said vehicle; adding infrared LEDs to the tail light assembly to assist in stealth infrared image detecting, said infrared LEDs being illuminated at all times situational awareness is required; utilizing existing armored vehicle wiring or routing apparatus and no more than the existing hull pass-throughs that pass wires from the interior of the armored vehicle to the tail light assembly for connecting the wide angle infrared thermal imaging camera to a display within the vehicle such that no new holes or pass-throughs in the armor are added that would otherwise degrade original armor integrity; and, displaying within the vehicle images from the wide angle thermal imaging camera for alerting troops within the vehicle as to thermal images of objects or persons in the area surrounding the rear of the vehicle prior to the troops exiting the vehicle at the rear, said existing tail light assemblies being retrofitted with a situational awareness system without sacrificing hull integrity to alert the troops to threats at the rear of the vehicle prior to disembarkation thus to provide situational awareness in low light or no light conditions.