Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has been awarded a contract to supply the Philippine Navy with the MiniPOP for Maritime Applications Electro-Optics Systems. The systems will be integrated on patrol boats in the Philippine Navy. The MiniPOP for Maritime Applications is operational in navies worldwide, and builds on IAI’s decades-long heritage in electro-optics technology. The Sea MiniPOP is a dual-axis, gyro-stabilized payload designed as a single Line Replaceable Unit (LRU) carrying up to four sensors and based on an open architecture. IAI has extensive experience in developing electro-optic systems and operational sensors for air, land, and maritime applications.
IAI’s MiniPOP for Maritime Applications, developed by IAI’s Systems Missiles and Space Group, is an 8 inches’ lightweight and compact multi-sensors observation system built for maritime applications. The electro-optics system is designed to operate during both day and night, and meet harsh environmental conditions such as shock, vibration from waves, and extreme temperatures. The payload provides real-time imaging, automatic video tracking, and precise target geo-location capabilities that can be used as a stand-alone EO/IR observation system on small and medium-sized vessels.
Boaz Levy, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) President and CEO, said: “We are proud of IAI’s growing partnership with the Philippine Navy and the opportunity to provide our operational, combat-proven systems to the Philippines. This contract for electro-optics systems joins other recent deals between IAI and the Philippine Navy, signifying the expanding cooperation and serving as a testimony to the trust the customer has in Israel Aerospace Industries’s advanced technologies. We look forward to broadening our fruitful partnership in the years to come.”
The Sea MiniPOP can be easily connected and integrated to any C4I or be operated with IAI’s control system. Nor did IAI mention which type of patrol boats would receive the EO systems but the Philippine Navy (PN) is expecting to receive the first three of eight Shaldag Mk V fast patrol boats ordered from Israel Shipyards in the first quarter of 2022. The boats, which are meant to meet a PN requirement for missile-capable fast attack interdiction craft (FAIC-M), will be initially deployed in the ‘Mindanao area of responsibility’ where there are “continuous operations against local terrorist groups and communist terrorist groups.
