BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. -- The fighting in Iraq is worlds away for most of us here in the Capital Region, but one local company is delivering technology to troops that will help save lives.

“What they are trying to train for is to identify the threat prior to engaging and the only way they can do that is to have a realistic target that represents a realistic threat,” said Bruce Hodge, President of Tech Valley Technologies.

Those realistic targets are made at Tech Valley Technologies in Ballston Spa.

“The targets are placed on the range. These are 110 targets. They plug into an outlet on the target coffins and they heat up. Now they heat up to an exact signature of the human being,” said John Eramo, Vice President and Founder of Tech Valley Technologies.

Sounds pretty simple, but that signature actually helps soldiers identify the differences between civilians and enemy soldiers. The idea is to ultimately cut down on friendly fire.

"The ones we want them to be able to identify, obviously, is the enemy threat and threat levels,” Eramo said.

It was about a year ago this local company landed a major client.

“There was an RFP (request for proposal) that came out and it specified that they wanted realistic targets that emitted the triple spectrum and that had friend/foe type of representation, so to that end, we delivered,” Hodge said.

And deliver they did. Over the next few weeks, Tech Valley Tech will ship over 4,000 targets to 15 different forts.

“We're starting to get a lot of customers, being the military, that are asking for our targets by name,” Hodge said.

Not a bad start and with more ideas on the table, this is just the beginning for Tech Valley Tech.