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A Survey of Capabilities and Manufacturers
Recce pods carried by modern combat aircraft are increasingly being optimised for net-centric warfare operations. Aimed at collecting clear imagery at great stand-off ranges and closing the sensor-to-shooter loop, airborne recce systems have specific design characteristics. Among these is their capability to be incorporated into fully automated multi-function systems to provide for rapid image exploitation and analysis by intelligence cells and dissemination to all levels of command. Such real-time or near real-time imagery will ensure better target identification and also help preventing or at least limiting "blue-on-blue" kills.
The success of today's military operations depends on sensors in the sky. Newly-introduced airborne sensors enable today's fighter aircraft to download and transmit data in real-time to ground stations within a theatre of operations. Additionally, improved sensors and software further expand capabilities beyond the first-generation's "soda-straw" views and relatively low-resolution imagery. Airborne reconnaissance tools like Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors and specific emitter identification have been shown in recent campaigns to be invaluable for close air support or strike missions carried out deep behind enemy lines, and more in general battlefield commanders require high-definition photography to adequately detect, identify, and locate enemy targets from great distances, to assess the damage that has been inflicted to the target, and to re-strike if necessary. The need of high-quality proof images for decision-making is leading to the increasingly widespread use of electrooptical (EO) technologies, either in the visible spectrum or in the infrared (IR) bandwidth, backed by completely new computer algorithms, high data transfer rates and advanced communication links to replace earlier wet film technology. New LOROP (Long Range Oblique Photography) camera equipment, telescope optics, large focal plane arrays (FPA), and high-quantum efficiency detectors allow very high performances over large distances. Any of these sensors appear to be equally useful in missions ranging from combat search and rescue (CSAR) to intelligence-gathering special warfare (SPECWAR) operations.
Why Airborne Recce?
During the initial stages of the campaign in Iraq, the main focus of air-to-ground combat has been consistently concentrated on detecting and engaging enemy troop positions and movements. Approximately at the time US ground forces reached Tikrit on 15 April 2003, missions flown by US, British, and Australian combat aircraft increasingly involved pure tactical reconnaissance...