SAAF opts for Argos military airborne observation system
Date: 1 May 2007
Armscor awarded Denel Optronics a contract for the supply of the Argos 410-Z military airborne observation system to the SA Air Force (SAAF) for its Cessna Caravan aircraft in March 2007.
The Argos 410-Z enhances and expands the ability of the aircraft to perform long-range search and rescue, surveillance, reconnaissance, and other observation missions.
"We are delighted with this Armscor contract which once again underwrites our commitment to support our local defence force with state-of-the-art technology products," says Theo Kleynhans, Acting General Manager of Denel Optronics.
German company Carl Zeiss Optronics GmbH signed an agreement with Denel on 14 March 2007 to acquire a majority stake in Denel Optronics as part of the restructuring process of Denel.
The Argos 410-Z is a stabilised airborne observation system equipped with the latest generation Carl Zeiss Optronics thermal imager, a 3-CCD daylight TV camera with powerful zoom lens, eye-safe laser rangefinder, autotracker, and mission awareness positioning system (MAPS). The MAPS function provides the operator with GPS coordinates of "objects of interest" by means of a high accuracy integrated inertial measurement unit (IMU).
Denel Optronics has been show-casing its Argos 410-Z at several major global air shows in recent times, notably ILA in Berlin, Farnborough in the UK and Eurosatory in Paris, as well as at the Africa Aerospace & Defence (AAD) in Cape Town. It attracted major interest from international aircraft manufacturers, systems houses and military customers (end-users) looking to retrofit their existing systems.
Built to military specifications the Argos 410-Z offers outstanding day and night image quality. The Carl Zeiss Optronics ATTICA thermal imager is known for generating clear, focused images. With its four fields of view and advanced image processing features, including edge enhancement, local adaptive dynamic compression and electronic zoom, it offers exceptional detection, recognition and identification ranges.
Further information about the Argos 410-Z (the "Z" denotes the system is equipped with the Zeiss thermal imager) is available on the website: http://www.deneloptronics.co.za/
Denel Corporate Communication, via SA Soldier (May 2007)
