LANTIRN
| Hi-res cutaway diagram of LANTIRN pods by Flight International, 2006. | |
 AN/AAQ-13 LANTIRN navigation pod
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AN/AAQ-14 LANTIRN targeting pod
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Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night, or LANTIRN, is a combined navigation and targeting pod system for use on the USAF's premier fighter aircraft — the F-15E Strike Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon (Block 40/42 C & D models). LANTIRN significantly increases the combat effectiveness of these aircraft, allowing them to fly at low altitudes, at night and under-the-weather to attack ground targets with a variety of precision-guided weapons.
LANTIRN consists of a navigation pod and a targeting pod mounted externally beneath the aircraft.
The AN/AAQ-13 navigation pod provides high-speed penetration and precision attack on tactical targets at night and in adverse weather. The navigation pod also contains a terrain-following radar and a fixed thermographic camera, which provides a visual cue and input to the aircraft's flight control system, enabling it to maintain a pre-selected altitude above the terrain and avoid obstacles. This sensor displays an infrared image of the terrain in front of the aircraft, to the pilot, on a Head-up display. The navigation pod enables the pilot to fly along the general contour of the terrain at high speed, using mountains, valleys and the cover of darkness to avoid detection. The pod was the USAF's first wide-field, forward looking infrared navigation system for air superiority fighters. A downgraded version for export with the terrain-following radar deleted is designated as the AN/AAQ-20 Pathfinder, which is only capable of providing a visual cue/picture of ground features in darkness and adverse weather generated by the infrared sensor, and pilots must rely on his/her own skill to avoid ground obstacles at low altitude flight.
The AN/AAQ-14 targeting pod contains a high-resolution, forward looking infrared sensor (which displays an infrared image of the target to the pilot), a laser designator/rangefinder for precise delivery of laser-guided munitions, a missile boresight correlator for automatic lock-on of the AGM-65 Maverick imaging infrared missiles, and software for automatic target tracking. These features simplify the functions of target detection, recognition and attack and permit pilots of single-seat fighters to attack targets with precision-guided weapons on a single pass. A downgraded version for export with the AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missile compatibility deleted is designated as AN/AAQ-19 Sharpshooter.
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