Navy awards another production contract to Lockheed Martin for electro-optical sensor suite on AH-1Z combat helicopter

U.S. Navy helicopter avionics experts have awarded another production contract to the Lockheed Martin Corp. Missiles and Fire Control segment in Orlando, Fla., for a multi-sensor electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) fire-control system for the U.S. Marine Corps AH-1Z Cobra attack helicopter as part of the H-1 upgrades program.
Officials of the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Ind., have awarded a $34 million contract to Lockheed Martin to provide the AN/AAQ-30 Target Sight Systems (TSS) for the AH-1Z combat helicopter.
The AN/AAQ-30 TSS comprises a large-aperture midwave forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensor, color TV camera, laser designator and rangefinder with eyesafe mode, and on-gimbal inertial measurement unit integrated into a stabilized turret. The turret mounts to the nose of the aircraft via the Lockheed Martin-developed aircraft interface structure. TSS provides the capability to identify and laser-designate targets at maximum weapon range.
The Navy's H-1 upgrades program remanufactures of legacy aircraft with state-of-the-art designs incorporated into the existing fleet of AH-1W’s, converting them to AH-1Zs, Navy officials say.
The TSS provides target identification and tracking, passive targeting for integrated weapons such as Hellfire missiles, and a laser designation capability supporting U.S. and allied laser-guided weapons.

Its features include an 8.55-inch aperture, midwave staring FLIR with four fields-of-view, multi-mode and multi-target tracker with coast-through-obscuration capability; gimbal stabilized to less than 15 microradians; on-gimbal inertial measurement unit for reduced image blur due to jitter; multi-mode multi-target tracker; image processing; high-magnification continuous-zoom color TV camera with field-of-view matched to the FLIR; and cooled 640-by-512-pixel indium antimonide detector.