“We have five units (of INFIRNO) built already and have several bids already in: we are ready for production,” Paul Lemmo, Vice President of Lockheed Martin’s fire control business told MT at Farnborough 2016 this week. He added that the bids already submitted are for US and international customers and that the first order, “will probably be from an international customer.”
Launched in 2015, INFIRNO is a high performance targeting and ISR sensor for airborne, maritime and ground platforms. A 15in turret with high definition optical sensors, the system allows operators to identify, track and prosecute multiple targets at “extended stand-off ranges,” and has been designed with ease of maintenance and operation firmly in mind.
“INFIRNO will operate at the maximum range of HELLFIRE and similar effectors,” said Lemmo, adding that the design of such a complex system has successfully reduced the number of line replaceable units to nine, thus greatly simplifying operation and maintenance.
One of the significant discriminators for INFIRNO, according to LEMMO, is the fact that the system uses ‘hot mid wave’ FLIR technology, thus avoiding the need for extensive cooling of the cryogenic cooler, a potential critical point of equipment failure in existing systems. A further competitive edge is provided by the extensive library of target algorithms and processing capabilities that INFIRNO enjoys – a function of Lockheed Martin’s four decades of experience and operational feedback.
Photo shows: INFIRNO shown nose-mounted on a company-owned and operated Sikorsky BLACK HAWK helicopter on display at Farnborough. The aircraft was built in Sikorsky’s Polish production facilities.
