Turkish military contractor ASELSAN develops new targeting system for military planes

The Turkish military contractor ASELSAN has been developing a national targeting system for combat aircrafts.

According to the Turkish Yeniakit publication, ASELSAN began the development and production of optical-electronic systems integrated into air platforms already back in the 1990s.

Introduced under the name ASELPOD, the new targeting system was designed to improve the combat effectiveness of F-16 combat aircrafts of the Turkish Air Force under all weather conditions during day and night.

Thanks to its high-performance thermal and daytime cameras, ASELPOD can provide high-resolution images for air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles during day and night conditions, as well as detect and identify ground- and air targets from very long distances due to its excellent range characteristics.

A two-wave laser ranging system allows for the calculation of a location, route information and speed of the target with high accuracy in combat and training modes.

ASELPOD can target GPS-guided bombs as well as send laser-guided munitions to the target via a laser marking system for the conduction of an attack.

The following functions are also available in the new system: guidance on night vision devices with a laser lighting system, tracking multiple targets on thermal and daytime camera images, digital video recording for surveillance purposes, mission and damage assessment function and the capturing of targets marked by external laser sources with a laser point tracking unit. It exhibits high performance in combat aircrafts with functions such as being above the target when the target is being blocked.