In 1984, the
Ministry of Defence established the Institute of Optronics (IOP) as a research and development (R&D) institute focused on military applications of lasers, optoelectronics, photonics and optronics. Set up under military control, the institute's first director was
Lieutenant-General Talat Masood from
DESTO, located in
Rawalpindi Cantonment. The scientific investigations on photonics was led by its principal investigator, Akram S. Hussain Abidi, a physicist with optics specialization who once worked for the
NASA at their
Goddard Space Flight Center. Under Abidi's leadership, the institute acquired expertise in night vision technology through reverse engineering of American models. During the period 1985–1989, the IOP successfully developed and manufactured its first night vision devices (NVDs) based on the
AN/PVS-4,
AN/PVS-5 and
AN/PVS-7 models. == Products ==