Electro-Optical vs. Thermal Tracking for Low-Altitude Targets

Electro-optical cameras resolve detail and colour, which helps with identification and evidence capture during daylight. Thermal sensors depend on contrast between the target and its background, so they excel at dawn, dusk and night.

Neither is sufficient alone. Pairing a 4K EO channel with an uncooled thermal core on a stabilised gimbal gives operators a fallback when one modality is degraded.

Consider the datalink before the sensor. High-resolution video is useless if the tracking loop cannot keep the target centred at range.