In 1970, a Pakistani Mirage 3 was in California undergoing flight testing of a new compact infrared scanner intended as a low-altitude target acquisition sensor. It was meant for target acquisition for low flying targets that the radar would not be able to detect or track due to ground clutter. The sensor was itself housed on top front of the weapon pylon launching rail (way ahead of its time in some sense) and was cooled using liquid nitrogen. It was developed by Varadyne Systems.
Anyone has access to the Nov 2, 1970 issue of AW&ST to post more details and better pictures?
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