The South African Air Force (SAAF) has awarded Carl Zeiss Optronics a contract to provide on-demand support for the Argos-410 A4 observation system aboard AgustaWestland A109 light utility helicopters.

The Argos 410-Z sensor configuration includes the Carl Zeiss Optronics mid-wave ATTICA thermal imager (FLIR), a 3-CCD daylight TV camera with powerful zoom lens, eye-safe laser range finder, autotracker and a mission awareness positioning system (MAPS).

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The MAPS function provides the system operator with GPS coordinates of objects of interest which is achieved by a high-accuracy integrated inertial measurement unit (IMU).

The Argos 410-Z has four fields of view and advanced image-processing features, including edge enhancement, local adaptive dynamic compression and electronic zoom, offers detection, recognition and identification ranges, reports defenceweb.com.

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