Rafael (Stand N55) is showing the Reccelite XR (extended range) sensor that it launched last year, alongside the similarly upgraded Litening 5 targeting pod. The Singapore Airshow coincides with news that the tactical reconnaissance system has been demonstrated on a UK Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado strike aircraft.
With so many air forces having chosen the Litening pod, the attraction of adding a dedicated recon sensor with the same form and fit is obvious. Six air forces have done so, adopting the original Reccelite system, which includes a wideband datalink and adaptable ground station. Now the addition of a short-wave infrared waveband (SWIR) to the previous medium-waveband (MWIR) plus CCD video gives Reccelite XR “some 80 percent of the capability of a much more expensive Long-Range Oblique Photography (LOROP) sensor,” said Yuval Miller, executive vice-president of Rafael’s Air and C4ISR Systems Division. The SWIR operates through the same, larger aperture as the MWIR.
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