RAFAEL Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. has unveiled MicroLite – a compact, lightweight, EO/IR sensor for airborne Wide-Area Persistent Surveillance missions. MicroLite joins RAFAEL's family of advanced aerial electro-optical systems that includes the Litening advanced targeting pod, of which over 1700 Systems have been operationally fielded world-wide, the RecceLite real-time Digital ISR pod, the Toplite EO/IR System, and more.
MicroLite is an innovative, compact, lightweight EO/IR Intelligence, Surveillance, Targeting and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) system, for small aerial platforms such as UAVs, manned aircraft, aerostats and observation balloons. By simultaneous scanning with a high-resolution MWIR and Visual HD color sensors, MicroLite enables 24/7 Wide-Area Persistent Surveillance. In addition, MicroLite may be equipped with a LASER designator for sensor-to-shooter loop closure. Certain ground-breaking technologies have been developed and integrated into MicroLite to enable these capabilities in a miniaturized form-factor. MicroLite applies a gimballed-turret design, which enables horizon-to-horizon field of regard.The system also includes an onboard data processing and storage unit for real-time advanced image processing. An advanced suite of cyber defenses is applied.
First of its kind, RAFAEL's MicroLite has been integrated onto the Orbiter-4 UAV by Aeronautics, to begin flight tests. This is the first example of the tight synergy created by a RAFAEL product and an Aeronautics platform, after RAFAEL acquired Aeronautics last year.