The fighter-targeting FLIR (forward-looking infrared) market will almost triple in the next 10 years, to more than $1 billion annually, and expanded capabilities will be added as increasingly ubiquitous fighter FLIRs become as multi-tasked as their platforms.

Operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan have both contributed to the demand for new capabilities. The U.S. military is increasingly seeking to launch PGMs (precision-guided weapons) from high altitudes and at long range, in order to avoid enemy SAM (surface-to-air-missile) sites. Fighter FLIRs are now tasked to designate targets from as high as 40,000 ft. and at ranges up to 20 naut. mi. or more. This requires higher resolution, greater sensor stability and better target identification, which have led to the current wave of third-generation FLIR pods now entering production: Raytheon's ATFLIR, Lockheed Martin's Sniper/PANTERA, and Northrop Grumman's advanced versions of Litening. Increased capabilities have also led back to new missions, as FLIR images are approaching the quality once provided by dedicated reconnaissance systems.

"Third-and-a-half"-generation systems will incorporate third-generation hardware into internal mountings. The IFTS (Integrated FLIR Targeting System) is being developed by Northrop Grumman for the United Arab Emirates' $7.9-billion order of 80 Block 60 F-16s. Plans for IFTS have included a navigation FLIR turret forward of the cockpit, and a podded targeting FLIR mounted on the engine intake (which originally had been planned as internally mounted). The U.S. Air Force could purchase additional Block 60 F-16s, and other countries will likely add to the production total until the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter becomes widely available. There should be healthy additional production beyond the UAE order for IFTS. Of course, there will be competition for Northrop Grumman from other internal FLIR systems, but development for the UAE order should give Northrop Grumman a healthy lead in competitiveness.

Although Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control's advanced infrared search and track (AIRST) was publically canceled for the F-22, and no targeting FLIR is currently funded, there is almost certainly development ongoing for both of these internal systems, probably as classified programs. An advanced long-range IRST is in development for the E-2C Hawkeye, and the F-22 will likely get a derivative of this, Lockheed Martin's AIRST, or some other IRST, sometime after the middle of the decade. Now that the Air Force is making the F/A-22 strike version of the F-22 primary, development of an internal targeting FLIR--perhaps a derivative of the JSF targeting FLIR--will be crucial, and is likely already in development.

Fourth-generation systems are being designed as even more integrated and multi-tasked sensor suites. The Joint Strike Fighter IR System is currently in development as a fully integrated system comprising a distributed aperture missile warning/situational awareness/IRST system, and a targeting FLIR. Northrop Grumman's Distributed Aperture System (DAS) and Lockheed Martin's Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS) are the IR systems of choice on the F-35.