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NG sells Litening AT pods for Finn F-18s

ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill., Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Northrop Grumman has won a Finnish air force contract for Litening Advanced Targeting systems.

The systems will be for the FiAF's F-18 Mid-life Update 2 program, Northrop Grumman said in a statement Thursday.

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"Under the terms of the $30 million contract, Northrop Grumman's Defensive Systems Division will deliver 10 Litening AT systems to the FiAF under the U.S. Government Foreign Military Sales program beginning in late 2008 and continuing through 2009," the company said.

"With this contract award, Finland joins a growing number of international allies who have procured the Litening AT system after a comprehensive, in-depth competitive analysis that reviewed applicable targeting pods in use by the U.S. armed forces," said Mike Lennon, vice president of targeting and surveillance programs for Northrop Grumman's Defensive Systems Division.

"Almost 500 Litening pods have been ordered by the FiAF, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Netherlands Air Force, Israeli Air Force, and Italian and Spanish Navies. More than 440 systems have been fielded, the largest number of any advanced targeting and sensor system. Litening AT is combat proven on the AV-8B, A-10, B-52, F-15E, F-16 and F/A-18 aircraft. Together, all variants of the Litening pod have amassed more than 780,000 flight hours, with over 380,000 hours logged under deployed or combat conditions," Northrop Grumman said.

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Northrop Grumman said its Litening AT pod was "a self-contained, multi-sensor weapon-aiming system that enables fighter pilots to detect, acquire, auto-track and identify targets for highly accurate delivery of both conventional and precision-guided weapons."

"Fully integrated to support both air-to-air and air-to-ground engagements, Litening AT currently features advanced image processing for target identification; coordinate generation for GPS weapons; a 640 x 512 pixel forward-looking infrared sensor for effective day and night operations; a 1,024 x 1,024 pixel charge-coupled device television sensor; a dual waveband infrared laser designator and eye-safe laser range finder; a laser spot tracker; an infrared laser marker; and optional air-to-ground video data link and digital video recorder," the company said.

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