Rafael’s Litening 5 targeting pod will become operational next year

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The newest version of Rafael’s Litening targeting pod will become operational by the end of next year.

According to Guy Oren , director of Rafael’s Electro Optical systems, the new  version will have a large aperture color CCD sensor,and a large aperture IR and Swir sensors  that will enable to detect targets in “very long ranges”. The IR sensor will also be upgraded.

He added that the new version is not only a laser targeting pod but actually became a stand off  intelligence , surveillance , target acquisition and designating system that brings an outstanding autonomous stand off sensor to shooter capabilty.

Rafael has not changed to 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 aircrafts” he said

The miniaturization of some of the components has left two empty spaces in the pod and that allows add on features , tailored to the customer special requirements .

Oren says that by using the MatchGuide, a unique Rafael global orientation system the Lightening 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 5 will be offered by Rafael and Northrop to the U.S navy when the force opens the tender for an advanced targeting pod.