What is the main difference between litening pod and atflir

[MivwTaupos]

And which is better?

[Weasel]

Please check this video:

[Steel Jaw]

good info cheers

[FrostLaufeyson]

LITENING: Relatively speaking, you can see ground targets more clearly. Two stations to put.

ATFLIR: When moving the cursor, the coordinates in the TOO mode of the weapon are automatically changed (LITENING needs to depress TDC). You can move the cursor in AREA tracking mode (LITENING can't do it), so you can capture moving targets more easily. Only one station to put(at the ventral side of the aircraft).

Overall, I prefer ATFLIR. Although its image is more blurred, it is much more convenient to operate than LITENING. I suggest you try both pods and draw your own conclusions.

 

[Bunny Clark]

In addition to what others have said, from a realism standpoint: the US Navy only uses ATFLIR. LITENING is used by USMC Hornets operating from land bases. LITENING is not cleared for carrier operations, so USMC Hornets deployed on the boat also use ATFLIR. 

[Timster76]

vor 20 Minuten schrieb Bunny Clark:

In addition to what others have said, from a realism standpoint: the US Navy only uses ATFLIR. LITENING is used by USMC Hornets operating from land bases. LITENING is not cleared for carrier operations, so USMC Hornets deployed on the boat also use ATFLIR. 

That said, in Mission 14 of your Oil in the water campaign (which is fantastic) the players hornet is equipped with a LITENING pod

[Weasel]

That said, in Mission 14 of your Oil in the water campaign (which is fantastic) the players hornet is equipped with a LITENING pod

I guess this was due to Litening Pod was implemented much earlier. Please remember we got ATFLIR pod in March 2021

[Bunny Clark]

3 hours ago, Timster76 said:

That said, in Mission 14 of your Oil in the water campaign (which is fantastic) the players hornet is equipped with a LITENING pod

Hmmm, I'll need to go back and check that. I thought I'd swapped them all to ATFLIR when it was released, but I may have missed one. The first version of the campaign was released before ATFLIR was available for the Hornet. 

[Nialfb]

I know this topic is quite old, but I think it's still relevant.

I personally find target aquisition to be more accurate with the ATFLIR. The LITENING pod gives a crosshair for target aquisition so it is a bit hit or miss (excuse the pun) It is difficult to get the aguisition accurate enough, especially from some distance out. The ATFLIR taget aquisition is by use of a dot, either in the diamond or with the outer brackets. Maybe I'm just using the LITENING pod incorrectly, any guidance would be helpful.

I'm new to the F/A-18 and I've been practicing with JDAMs in both the TOO mode and PP mode. In PP mode I can kill static targets every time, in TOO mode I can generally kill two to three of four static target.

Thanks

Edited September 1, 2024 by Nialfb

[Recluse]

On 12/11/2021 at 1:04 PM, Bunny Clark said:

In addition to what others have said, from a realism standpoint: the US Navy only uses ATFLIR. LITENING is used by USMC Hornets operating from land bases. LITENING is not cleared for carrier operations, so USMC Hornets deployed on the boat also use ATFLIR. 

I have seen this quoted many times (LITENING not cleared for Carrier operations) but have never seen any OFFICIAL indication that this is a true limitation, while it is true that the Navy does use ATFLIR for Carrier Ops, it doesn't seem like a technical issue, just a procurement preference. And reading this, it seems like outfitting carrier based aircraft with LITENING would have been a possibility.

 

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA498288.pdf

 

Quote

However, when one considers that the only
reason the Navy is equipping its legacy Hornets with ATFLIR is
because it is equipping its Super Hornets with ATFLIR, and the
only reason that the Marine Corps is equipping its carrier-based
legacy Hornets with the ATFLIR is to maintain commonality with
the Navy legacy Hornets, the logic becomes a little less clear.

 

Edited September 2, 2024 by Recluse

[Jeb]

I was on the team to install the very first ATFLIR`s on USMC hornets (VMFA 142), we modded their entire fleet of A+ hornets and trained them up on the differences . they went to the desert after that  mod. cant remember the date we installed them  but probably around 2003-04 as I left Boeing's A/B/C/D E/F flight test in late 05 (VX23) , and went to the commercial side of aviation

Edited September 1, 2024 by Jeb