MENL: British Air force to use Israeli "navigation and targeting pod"

Middle East News Line is often very interesting. One has to subscribe to read the complete articles, but the excerpts available to non-subscribers are often sufficient:

The British Royal Air Force has decided to procure an Israeli-origin navigation and targeting pod for the country's new Eurofighter fleet.

The air force has selected the Litening-3 laser-designator pod, manufactured by the state-owned Rafael, Israel Armament Development Authority. The military service has signed a contract for the development of software to enable Eurofighter to accommodate the Litening, procured by Israel and the United States.

On July 20, the Eurofighter consortium signed a contract with NATO that would enable the mounting of Litening-3. The contract would allow the deployment of the Israeli pod on Tranche-1 Block 5 Eurofighters. Executives said the Eurofighter would require minor hardware changes for Litening deployment.

Under the contract, Britain's Ultra Electronics would assemble and supply Litening. The $104 million contract was awarded by the British Defence Ministry in July 2006 and called for the acquisition of 20 pods.

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Tags: Israel, Palestinians, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Iraq