PARIS, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- The Rafale fighter by France's Dassault Aviation is adding reconnaissance capabilities through the use of a dedicated sensor pod.
Dassault says AREOS Reco NG pods by Thales have already been ordered by the French air force and navy for their Rafale aircraft.
At the front of the pod, a high-altitude/medium-altitude optical sensor supports photography at medium range, or even long range at standoff distance. At the rear of the pod a low-altitude sensor supports horizon-to-horizon photography at an altitude of 200 feet.
The pod operates automatically, whether working in intermittent, zone coverage or terrain-following mode.
Its control capability is based on data transmitted by its inertial reference system, correlated with data from the nav-attack system on the aircraft. As soon as shots are taken, they are automatically overlaid on a digital elevation model, geo-referenced and assembled to provide a complete mosaic of the target.
The images are then stored on a hard disk in the pod. They can be transmitted to a ground image receiving and processing station in real time, via a high-speed microwave link, Dassault said.
The pod can also operate in video mode by using successive images and, by measuring the displacement of a moving object from one image to another, it can estimate its speed.
