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The recent fighting activities in various parts of the world highlighted the need for accurate targeting on one hand and real time reconnaissance capabilities on the other hand. Both needs can be met by means of targeting pod or reconnaissance pod, which enhance dramatically the aircraft task efficiency. Sharing common concept in design and architecture for the two types of pods reduces much of the overhead, required to operate two different pods in two different missions. Litening and Reccelite share a common design concept and are the perfect example for such savings.The design and built of a modern targeting / navigation / reconnaissance pod is governed by sets of requirements issued by the operators. This can be translated into the following design criteria: I. Design to be able to meet each customer specific requirements. II. Design to accommodate multiple sensors. III. Maintain capability for extensive signal and image processing capabilities, including future growth potential. In order to meet these design criteria, an optimized concept was resented and exercised for both Litening and Reccelite. All major sensing devices were placed in the front section 'on the gimbals' and all the signal processing boards were placed in the aft section in a special 'Video Unit'. While this concept enabled the designer to optimize the optical design for each sensor, it also introduced the need to optimize other system parameters. This article discusses the optimization processes, and also show how Litening and Reccelite designers successfully managed to introduce excellent solutions for the other system parameters : transferring high resolution video signals between the front and aft sections, electronic stabilization and 'open architecture' video processing unit to accommodate present and future capabilities.
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