L-3 CE Imager to Be Installed on the Navy's Fastest Ship
NEW YORK, Sept. 14 -- L-3 Communications, a provider of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance products and systems and secure communications systems, announced that its Cincinnati Electronics (L-3 CE) subsidiary, a maker of electronics for the aviation, infrared sensing, global positioning and space electronics markets, will provide the US Navy's Sea Fighter FSF-1 with its NightConqueror thermal imager. The NightConqueror will be used in the Vistar 350 sensor suite operating as an electro-optical navigation system on the Sea Fighter, a high-speed experimental vessel which can operate at greater than 50 knots and has a range of approximately 4000 nautical miles.
The high-speed experimental vessel Sea Fighter, designed to test technologies that let the Navy operate more effectively in coastal waters, will feature L-3 Cincinnati Electronics' NightConqueror thermal imager as part of its electro-optical navigation system. (Photo: Business Wire)
The NightConqueror produces high-resolution thermal imagery for 24-hour observation in degraded weather conditions. It will be incorporated into the Vistar 350, a day/night surveillance system that allows enhanced visibility from a range of craft, either seagoing or for inland waters. The system can be used on high-speed surface craft and patrol craft, and can be fitted onboard ships of at least 10 meters in length. In addition, the system can be fitted with automatic target tracking or it can be linked to the radar to follow the automatic radar plotting aid-selected targets or the electronic bearing line.
The Vistar 350 stabilized electro-optical navigation system will feature L-3 CE's NightConqueror thermal imager. (Photo: Business Wire)
According to the Office of Naval Research, which developed Sea Fighter with primary contractor L-3 Titan, this high-speed aluminum catamaran will test technologies that will allow the US Navy to operate more effectively in coastal waters. Sea Fighter, previously known as Littoral Surface Craft Experimental or "X-Craft," will be used to evaluate the hydrodynamic performance, structural behavior, mission flexibility and propulsion system efficiency of high-speed vessels.
Sea Fighter, which is 262 ft long and displaces 1400 tons at full load, with a beam of 72 ft and a navigational draft of 11.5 ft, will also serve as a test bed for developmental mission packages and as a risk reduction experimental vessel for the Littoral Combat Ship and Deepwater Program concepts of operation development at sea, naval researchers said.
The NightConqueror imager has also been selected as the imager for new systems and as an upgrade to existing programs for the US military. Additional systems are being produced for land attack vehicles, next-generation submarines and surface fleets, advanced airborne reconnaissance pods and fighter aircraft.
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Published: September 2005
Glossary
- photonics
- The technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant energy whose quantum unit is the photon. The science includes light emission, transmission, deflection, amplification and detection by optical components and instruments, lasers and other light sources, fiber optics, electro-optical instrumentation, related hardware and electronics, and sophisticated systems. The range of applications of photonics extends from energy generation to detection to communications and...
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