Free Republic

The Kremlin’s air war over Syria demonstrated that Russia’s once dilapidated military has recovered from its low-point in 1990s in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse. But while the Russian Air Force showed off new precision-guided weapons and new high-performance aircraft like the Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, Su-34 Fullback and the Su-35S Flanker-E, it was evident that Moscow still lacked certain capabilities. One such gap was the lack of a targeting pod like Northrop Grumman’s LITENING G4 or the Lockheed Martin Sniper. However, Russia seems to be rapidly closing that gap with the development of its own indigenous targeting pod under...

Here’s how a Typhoon multirole aircraft can hit two targets at the same time with a single targeting pod The recent article about the Typhoon fighter jet performing first laser guided, self designating, simultaneous guided bomb drops sparked some debate. Although other aircraft are known to have similar capabilities, some readers asked how a combat plane could hit two targets at same time with only a single laser designator of the Litening pod. I asked Andrea Kay, Senior Communications Advisor at BAE Systems, one of the companies of the Eurofighter consortium, to shed some light on the matter. Andrea inquired...

LITENING for UK's Eurofighters Posted 20-Jul-2006 07:31 Ultra Electronics Holdings announces that its Sonar & Communication Systems business, based in Greenford, Middlesex, has been selected by the UK Ministry of Defense to supply and support "LITENING EF 3rd generation airborne surveillance & targeting pods" for the RAF's Eurofighter aircraft. Ultra will act as the prime contractor and assemble the pods in the UK, with its Sonar & Communication Systems business unit running the project. LITENING designer RAFAEL of Israel will act as the principal sub-contractor. The Eurofighter has initially been produced and delivered in its air defense version; full muti-role...

Israeli-made targeting pod used to kill al Zarqawi Rafael’s Litening system marks the target, guides the ordinance with lasers, and evaluates damage. Amnon Barzilai 18 Jun 06 10:37 Abu Musab al Zarqawi, al-Qaida’s top terrorist in Iraq, was killed with help of Israeli target acquisition technology fitted onto a US Air Force F-16. Rafael Armament Development Authority Ltd. supplies Litening advanced airborne infrared targeting and navigation pod to Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC), which installs them on combat jets under a cooperation agreement. The Israel Air Force also uses the Litening. According to a report by senior US Air Force officers, al...

4/18/2006 - EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) -- Three Air Force units have started accelerated testing of a LITENING-AT targeting pod. The 416th Flight Test Squadron here is working with the 85th Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., and the 422nd OTES at Nellis AFB, Nev., to update the existing LITENING pod with several new capabilities for warfighters, including a video downlink transmitter currently used in the Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. "The transmitter, called the ROVER Module, was pulled out of the Predator and allows the video the pilot is looking at to be...