DavidSling
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Times have changed and systems that in the past were considered a “luxury” for air forces are now basic equipment.
Until ten years ago, targeting pods on fighter aircraft were considered a luxury of air forces serving countries with “Deep Pockets”
Well, not anymore. These systems are now a baseline in almost any fleet of fighter aircraft that is really preparing for combat and not only for parades.
Now these systems have become crucial to every combat mission and as the importance grew, the demand soared and so is the competition between the main manufacturers.
The Israeli air force was one of the first to use targeting pods . First these were the ones that were supplied with the American made fighter aircraft that Israel purchased, but at some point the locally made ones proved their superiority. In a parallel process foreign air forces discovered the capabilities of the Rafael Litening targeting pod and sales increased .
The new technologies, combined with the operational experience of the Israeli air force resulted in the contiguous upgrade of the Rafael system.
So after some upgrades to existing versions, the Rafael Litening 5 targeting pod will become fully operational at the end of 2016.
According to Rafael the new version will have a large aperture color CCD sensor that will enable to detect targets in “very long ranges”. The IR sensor will also be upgraded.
The new version is not only a targeting pod but actually became an intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) system.
Rafael has not changed the pod’s dimensions and form to make it easy to deploy it on different types of aircraft “the systems is now carried on 25 different aircraft,” a Rafael source said.
The miniaturization of some of the components has left two empty spaces in the pod and that allows each customer to use it for dedicated, in many cases classified features.
By using the MatchGuide, a unique Rafael global orientation system – the Litening 5 is capable of accurate designation exchange between remote video sources in real time. In addition, the system enables precise coordinate extraction of a selected video pixel or marking of known coordinates on a live video in real time.
MatchGuide, said the Rafael senior official, closes the operational gap for the precise geographical information exchange between battle participants. “The system enables designation of entities such as targets, threats, friendly forces and national infrastructure on the sender’s video display, then sending them to the receiver.”
The Litening G-5 will be offered by Rafael and Northrop to the U.S navy when the force opens the tender for an advanced targeting pod.
http://i-hls.com/2016/05/targeting-pods-on-fighter-aircraft-a-must-in-low-intensity-conflicts/
Until ten years ago, targeting pods on fighter aircraft were considered a luxury of air forces serving countries with “Deep Pockets”
Well, not anymore. These systems are now a baseline in almost any fleet of fighter aircraft that is really preparing for combat and not only for parades.
Now these systems have become crucial to every combat mission and as the importance grew, the demand soared and so is the competition between the main manufacturers.
The Israeli air force was one of the first to use targeting pods . First these were the ones that were supplied with the American made fighter aircraft that Israel purchased, but at some point the locally made ones proved their superiority. In a parallel process foreign air forces discovered the capabilities of the Rafael Litening targeting pod and sales increased .
The new technologies, combined with the operational experience of the Israeli air force resulted in the contiguous upgrade of the Rafael system.
So after some upgrades to existing versions, the Rafael Litening 5 targeting pod will become fully operational at the end of 2016.
According to Rafael the new version will have a large aperture color CCD sensor that will enable to detect targets in “very long ranges”. The IR sensor will also be upgraded.
The new version is not only a targeting pod but actually became an intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) system.
Rafael has not changed the pod’s dimensions and form to make it easy to deploy it on different types of aircraft “the systems is now carried on 25 different aircraft,” a Rafael source said.
The miniaturization of some of the components has left two empty spaces in the pod and that allows each customer to use it for dedicated, in many cases classified features.
By using the MatchGuide, a unique Rafael global orientation system – the Litening 5 is capable of accurate designation exchange between remote video sources in real time. In addition, the system enables precise coordinate extraction of a selected video pixel or marking of known coordinates on a live video in real time.
MatchGuide, said the Rafael senior official, closes the operational gap for the precise geographical information exchange between battle participants. “The system enables designation of entities such as targets, threats, friendly forces and national infrastructure on the sender’s video display, then sending them to the receiver.”
The Litening G-5 will be offered by Rafael and Northrop to the U.S navy when the force opens the tender for an advanced targeting pod.
http://i-hls.com/2016/05/targeting-pods-on-fighter-aircraft-a-must-in-low-intensity-conflicts/
