Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: infrared and interceptors
Message-ID: <8532@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 24 Jul 89 05:14:09 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
>... What is the status of the FLIR testing.  Last I read
>in AW&ST said it was being tested on an F-16...

FLIR systems are becoming fairly widespread.  But these are see-in-the-dark
navigation systems for bombers, not target detectors for fighters.  I
suppose they might have some capability in that role -- anybody know? --
but I suspect not a good one, since they're not optimized for it.  (A
bomber navigation system wants to give the best possible image of the
countryside at short range, while a fighter target detector wants to
ignore the scenery completely and just pick up moving hot spots as far
away as possible.)

                                     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                 uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu