Rafael is promoting a new version of the very successful Litening pod here at Paris, after celebrating the 1,000th sale of this targeting and navigation system. It has also developed a multi-sensor ground station from one that it previously built to handle imagery from the Rafael Reccelite reconnaissance pod.
First produced in 1992, Litening pods have been sold to 26 countries and integrated on some 22 different aircraft, mostly fighters but also the U.S. Air Force’s mighty B-52. With its third-generation FLIR, improved CCD sensor for the visible spectrum, electronic image stabilization and dual-wavelength laser, the Litening III offered a step-change in capability when it became available five years ago. Rafael claims that the Litening was the first pod to incorporate a FLIR sensor with a special wide-field-of-view to provide a display on the pilot’s HUD to enable low-level navigation at night. The system can also provide air-to-air capability by detecting targets at beyond visual range.
