L-3 WESCAM Executes Successful Imaging System

L-3 WESCAM announces the 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 U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, 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,” says 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.” Upon delivery and 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 fifty 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 MX-25 has the ability to house up to seven imaging and laser sensors and can be further equipped with a laser designator option.