@theaviationist

The Litening ATP (advanced targeting pod) has completed its first test flights on the U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet, Northrop Grumman announced on Sept. 7, 2022. The pod is an electro-optical infrared sensor system, already used for targeting and surveillance purposes by several operators all around the world. It has logged more than 3 million operational hours and over 1 million hours in combat enabling aircrews to detect, acquire, identify and track targets at long ranges with an availability rate greater than 95%. Earlier this year the U.S. Navy has selected the combat proven Litening as the replacement of the legacy targeting pods used by the Super Hornet fleet. The latter have so far used the AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR (Advanced Tactical Forward Looking Infrared) but in 2019 the naval service started evaluating different options, including the improvement or replacement of the EO/IR pods, over concerns about the hardware’s readiness state and sustainment cost. ull report at TheAviationist.com (link in bio, direct link to article in IG story) #theaviationist #f18superhornet #usnavy #liteningpod #atflirpod #superhornet #northropgrumman #northrop