IAF sharpens power with Israeli 'pods'
JPR:
Here is some interesting news.
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New Delhi, October 12 (Shishir Gupta-HT)
In a major development, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has now acquired round-the-clock strike capability with the recent purchase of highly sophisticated targeting and navigation pods from Israel.
It is understood that the IAF has purchased 'Litening Pods' from Israel so that it can inflict heavy attrition on the strategic enemy targets even in pitch dark conditions. These force multipliers, which are being manufactured by the Israeli firm Rafael, are used to acquire targets by day or night.
These pods were fitted on India's Mirage-2000 fighters and tested during IAF's night attacks on Pakistani intruders perched on the Tiger Hill in Dras sector and Muntho Dalo in the Batalik sector during the Kargil war. However, at that time, the IAF officials tried to play down the Israeli card by saying that it was the full-moon conditions that had facilitated the night raids.
The importance of these pods can be gauged from the fact that the Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal A.Y. Tipnis, flew a Mirage-2000 trainer in the thick of Kargil war to check out the system first hand. Incidentally, even the United States Air Force has purchased the ?Litening Pods? from Israel as the system is said to be more sophisticated than their own 'Lintern' system. Highly placed sources said that the 'Litening Pods' that are capable of identifying aerial target beyond 40 km range can even be mounted on all Russian origin aircraft including the MiG-21.
These pods, which are latched on to the belly of a fighter plane, essentially have two cameras including an infra-red one for night vision. However, the only limitation of this system is that it cannot penetrate cloud cover with its infra-red sensor. It is understood that the Israeli pods proved highly successful in landing unguided iron bombs with deadly accuracy during the Kargil war.
The IAF first used this system to land 250 kilogram bombs of Spanish origin on Pakistani intruders and their supply camps in the war theatre. Subsequently, the system was used to deliver indigenous 1000 pound iron bombs on enemy targets. This was on account of the capability of these Israeli pods to integrate with the avionics of the aircraft to determine the precise timing of the bomb release so that maximum destruction could be achieved.
It seems that the growing Indo-Israeli co-operation in the field of defence has been central to the IAF's plan to modernise the force with top-of-the-line hardware.
During the early nineties, it was the US that had given a boost to IAF's technological capabilities by selling Pave-2 laser guidance kits that were used for precision guidance purposes. The IAF mounted these kits on the 1000 pounders at a cost of around $4,000 a piece.
As the cost of the US-made guidance kits was turning out to be prohibitive, the IAF turned to the Israelis for support. It is understood that the Israelis have sold Griffen laser guided kits at a significantly lower price. As a result, the IAF today has a minimum but credible capability to launch precision guidance attacks at anytime of the day and night.
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