L-3 WESCAM [LLL] recently said it had a successful on-time delivery and in-flight demonstrations of its first MX™-25 electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) imaging system.
The MX-25 was delivered to the Army’s Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., where it was evaluated by the Persistent Threat and Detection System (PTDS) Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) team as a plug-and-play upgrade path for the MX-20 systems currently deployed on PTDS aerostats.
“Verifying that the MX-25 could be quickly installed as a spiral PTDS upgrade was a necessity, as the U.S. Army has an immediate requirement to identify insurgent activity at significantly greater distances than what its current system was designed to operate from,” said Paul Jennison, L-3 WESCAM vice president of government sales and business development.
“Engineering this long-range solution for the U.S. Army represents the fifth technology spiral path that L-3 WESCAM has provided to CECOM since PTDS became operational in 2005,” he said.
After only two hours of installation, the MX-25 was operational and evaluated over a course of nine consecutive days. During this time, a side-by-side resolution test was conducted between the MX-20 and MX-25, whereby the MX-25 provided similarly detailed thermal imagery at 50 percent greater standoff distances.
The superior range capability and enhanced situational awareness that the system executed during testing is a result of a significantly larger IR lens aperture, a high-definition IR imager and improved stabilization, the company said in a statement. The MX-25 can house as many as seven imaging and laser sensors and can be further equipped with a laser designator option.