Leonardo banners sales of Linaps artillery aiming systems

Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Leonardo is touting its artillery aiming system, which garnered more than $59 million in export sales for the company in fiscal year 2017.

Leonardo's Linaps system, developed and manufactured in Britain, boosts an artillery platform's accuracy at an affordable cost, the company said, and is currently in use in Britain, Canada, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, South Africa, Thailand and Malaysia.

Sales of Linaps in 2017 was more than 150 units. More than 100 of Leonardo's FIN 3120 Inertial Navigation Units have also been sold.

"Linaps, which can be adapted to fit any existing artillery, mortar or MLRS platform, provides highly-accurate weapon management and navigation, without reliance on GPS," Leonardo said in a press release. "Linaps provides an artillery platform with a sophisticated fire-control capability, allowing forces to fire both indirect or direct with a very high level of accuracy."

Each Linaps system includes a FIN3120 Inertial Navigation Unit, the gyro-based system that measures the gun platform's location, azimuth and elevation. The system can also be purchased separately.

Linaps was the first digital system to be deployed into Iraq and Afghanistan, as it was included on the UK L118 Light Gun and the Canadian M777. BAE Systems' 155mm M777 lightweight howitzer, M109 and 105mm L118/L119 light guns, Denel Land Systems' G5/G6 155mm towed artillery system platforms also carry Linaps.