Context
The French Naval Aviation operates various helicopters, dedicated to a large number of missions. Among the most recurring ones are the fight against drug trafficking and the Search And Rescue (SAR) missions, which occur day and night, from a distance below one hundred meters from targets. Counterdrug missions: as soon as a boat is suspected to be used to smuggle drugs, it is chased by a Navy helicopter. Onboard the helicopter, the observer focuses on the surveillance of activities onboard the chased boat: the kind of boat, the number of passengers, whether they are carrying weapons, if they threw packages in the water, and if yes, where. Besides, if fire is engaged with the smugglers, it has to be justified later to the Navy Command, by means of image and video. SAR missions: when looking for a supposedly missing person at sea, the observer has to cover a large surface with his NVD in order to detect the missing person. He has to do it as quick as possible, as the survival time of an individual immersed is very short. As the available space onboard is very limited, the observer stands behind the shooter (during counterdrug missions) or behind the hoist operator (for SAR missions) to perform his observation.
