Germany and the Netherlands are evaluating whether to equip their Israeli-made unmanned air vehicles in Afghanistan with Rafael's Recce-U payload: a downsized version of its Reccelite tactical reconnaissance pod.
Interest in the Recce-U sensor - which collects high-resolution visual, infrared and near-IR imagery over a wide field of view by day or night - stems from the European nations' operational experience in using the Reccelite to detect improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan.
Capable of being carried in an external pod on large UAVs such as the Israel Aerospace Industries Heron and General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper/Predator B, the Recce-U system can also be provided in a split configuration for carriage by smaller types.
The self-cooled Reccelite system records collected images on a solid state recorder, and can also transmit them to a ground exploitation station via datalink.
Source: Flight International
