Damocles (targeting pod)

The Damocles is a 3rd generation targeting pod, modular, eye-safe laser, high performance pod selected by the French Air Force for its attack fighter aircraft fleet.

For other uses, see Damocles (disambiguation).
A Damocles pod on a Dassault Rafale at the Paris Air Show 2009

Damocles is made by Thales Group produced in Élancourt, France.

Features

Damocles features a long-range laser designator, an integrated navigation FLIR and high-resolution imagery, and is fully compatible with Paveway and BGL laser-guided bombs, imagery-guided weapons, and AASM GPS/INS/LASER-guided weapons.

It also features a reconnaissance capability with instant transmission of imagery to ground stations. Overall robustness and ease of maintenance have been improved.

It is capable of guiding laser weapons to their extreme range (16 km) and identifying armoured vehicle targets at 27 km also conducting post-strike analysis at the same range.

Exports

Export sales of the Damocles targeting pod include:

Russia will license-produce the Thales Damocles reconnaissance and target designation pod for its air force strike aircraft, following successful tests of the system with Malaysia's Sukhoi Su-30MKM multirole fighter. Comparative trials involving Damocles and the Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant (UOMZ)-produced Sapsan and Solux targeting pods went in favour of the French design.[3]

Operators
Map with Damocles operators in blue

Current operators
gollark: Well, it's easier for a random person to stick microphones in a wall they control than that.
gollark: As in, monitor telephone calls, or get a smartphone or something to send audio data? I don't think either are *that* wildly insecure.
gollark: Which is arguably bad if you're *using* the currency, but means that a shared one is likely to cause politicking/not be adopted anyway.
gollark: A big issue with this is that in these days of modern economic whatever, control of a currency also allows financial hax which governments want to be able to do.
gollark: (And health services still have to prioritize treatments based on cost; they cannot give everyone arbitrarily expensive treatments)

References
  1. Thales Targets Sales in Russia
  2. AIN Online: Eurofighter Typhoon Path Becoming Clear, 18. November 2013
  3. Russian fighters to use Thales Damocles targeting pods
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