TIM RIPLEY / LONDON
In the rush to field unmanned air vehicles, the deployment of fast jets in intelligence gathering roles is being largely overlooked
At the height of the 1991 Gulf War, a UK Royal Air Force Panavia Tornado GR1A flew a night mission over Iraq's western desert looking for Scud missiles. The crew returned with ghost-like images of Scuds being prepared for launch. Unfortunately, the value of the images was negated by the US-led coalition's bureaucratic intelligence system. By the time targeting data got to strike aircraft, the mobile Scuds were gone.
In Operation Desert Storm, the need to return to base to develop, analyse and deliver film to users meant delays of hours or days before strike crews could view images of potential targets. Tactical reconnaissance aircraft relying on wet-film cameras proved unable to aid real-time targeting.
For much of the 1990s, fast-jet tactical reconnaissance was seen as the poor relation of more high-profile systems such as unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), the high-flying Lockheed U-2, Northrop Grumman E-8 JSTARS airborne ground-surveillance radar aircraft and space-based sensors. Even before the Gulf War, the US Air Force and US Marine Corps had decided to abandon fast-jet tactical reconnaissance in favour of theatre or strategic platforms.
European NATO air forces and the US Navy lacked the funding to go down this route and decided to retain small tactical reconnaissance forces. Keeping those was not easy for cash-strapped NATO air forces during the early 1990s. The first digital electro-optical sensor for RAF Sepecat Jaguars was only procured after the service convinced sceptical UK Treasury officials that a modest investment in this technology would save money over the long term on film-developing chemical costs.
Throughout the 1990s, European and US Navy tactical reconnaissance aircraft filled gaps in the coverage of strategic systems or went to places where UAVs could not go, proving the concept was not obsolete. The benefits of having organic reconnaissance assets under the control of local commanders, even with delays in turning around hard-copy product, was relearned in Balkan peacekeeping and Middle East no-fly-zone enforcement missions.
In many operations, fast jets showed their speed, while defensive systems meant they could survive in hostile airspace, where low-flying UAVs are vulnerable. They could also achieve tactical surprise, suddenly appearing over targets usually hidden from predictable satellites or slow-flying UAVs. Photographs taken by RAF Jaguars over Kurdistan of Iraqi surface-to-air missile crews racing to man their weapons demonstrated this capability.
Digital response
This experience led to requirements being developed for future tactical reconnaissance systems, which must be fully digital to allow their product to play a part in network-centric warfare. Imagery must be transmitted from the aircraft during its mission or within minutes of landing back at base, and moved rapidly in digital form over communications networks. The "holy grail" is the ability to allow the real-time monitoring of time-sensitive targets, such as Scud missile launchers, to allow them to be attacked in a matter of minutes.
The key building block for this vision has been the introduction of combat aircraft with high-capacity digital databuses, such as the Lockheed Martin F-16 Mid-Life Update, Saab/BAESystems Gripen and upgraded Tornado GR4. This allows new-generation reconnaissance pods to be integrated into the aircraft's digital avionics. It also means the pods themselves become "universal" and can be swapped between airframes, rather than limiting reconnaissance missions to a few specially modified aircraft. The latest generation of pods are also "modular", so that sensors, software, digital recorders and datalinks can be swapped around to suit mission requirements. This saves the cost of developing, certifying and operating individual pods for specific types of sensors.
Traditional wet-film cameras are being replaced by electro-optical digital sensors using various technologies. US company Recon/Optical specialises in step-framing, which uses a mechanical shutter, while UK firm W Vinten has pursued line-scan technology, developing an electro-optical linear array that builds an image line by line as the forward motion of an aircraft moves the sensor over a target. Goodrich Aerospace uses a "rocking camera", electronically scanning a strip image and then using software to paste the strips together. The transition to digital recording has been evolutionary, with video being employed in the 1990s by many air forces. Fully digital recording devices similar to computer hard drives are still expensive and only just entering widespread use.
Pilot workload and aircraft survivability are important drivers in the development of tactical reconnaissance datalinks. In single-seat aircraft, automated systems are needed to transmit imagery, but in two-seat aircraft the second crewman is able to review imagery before transmission. The need for radio silence in high-threat regions or during low-level flight has also driven the need to have a "burst-transmission" capability for imagery.
To further aid survivability, the pod can be slaved to a helmet-mounted sight, allowing the pilot to "point" the sensors at targets with minimal effort, as in the latest upgrade of RAF Jaguars. This significantly reduces workload and allows the pilot to give maximum attention to monitoring and avoiding threats. The best defence remains the ability to stand off via the use of medium-altitude and long-range oblique sensors. But cloud or bad weather means there is still need for low-level work.
Industrial support
Along with the transformation of tactical reconnaissance in the past decade, the industry supporting the niche has changed considerably to meet the new challenges. These include the requirement to provide full systems, from airborne sensors to datalinks, digital storage devices, ground analysis stations, imagery exploitation software and distribution equipment.
Customers are turning to a few specialists to oversee the development and installation of end-to-end systems. In some cases these are aircraft prime contractors, such as Lockheed Martin, or specialist reconnaissance companies, such as France's Thales Optronics. A few specialised companies also provide key technology, including sensor providers El Op in Israel and Goodrich, Pulnix and Recon/Optical in the USA. Denmark's Terma (formerly Per Udsen) has carved a niche providing pods.
Consolidation has affected this sector of the aerospace industry, with Vinten acquired last year by French defence electronics giant Thales as part of its buy-out of Avimo. It now trades as Thales Optronics (Vinten). In the USA, Raytheon has sold Goodrich its business unit responsible for airborne reconnaissance sensors.
The US Navy has continued to project-manage its own programmes. Throughout the 1990s, the service was faithful to tactical reconnaissance to ensure its carrier battle groups had their own organic capability. It also pioneered the introduction of digital and datalink technology with the Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance Pod System (TARPS) for its Grumman F-14 Tomcats. This capability has gone through several upgrades since it was first deployed in 1986.
The US Air Force returned to the tactical reconnaissance game in the mid-1990s developing the Theatre Airborne Reconnaissance System (TARS), with Lockheed Martin as prime contractor, fielding 20 pods for use by five Air National GuardF-16 squadrons. The USMC restored its capability in 1999 after a gap of almost eight years, by fielding the Advanced Tactical Air Reconnaissance System (ATARS), also a Lockheed Martin product, on reconnaissance-capable Boeing F/A-18D Hornets. This saw action in the last weeks of the Kosovo war and downloaded real-time targetimagery for use by NATO air commanders.
To migrate its reconnaissance capability from the TARPS pod on its F-14s to the new F/A-18F Super Hornets, the US Navy is soon to field the modular Shared Reconnaissance Pod (SHARP), which has a wide range of sensor options. The system is in development by Raytheon under direct US Navy programme management. The first evaluation deployment is due next year and full-rate production in 2004.
New world disorder
The RAF has had a strong interest in tactical reconnaissance for the last decade, with a series of evolutionary upgrades to ensure its systems were relevant to policing the "new world disorder". New pods with sensors for medium-level operations were purchased for Jaguars and Tornado GR1s. Then, Vinten electro-optical sensors were added to the Jaguar Reconnaissance Pod (JRP). This has been migrated to Harrier GR7s and is being cleared for use on the Tornado GR4. The JRP uses video as the recording medium, so in-flight exploitation and downloading was not possible. RAF crews have expressed a desire for fully digital recording devices and datalinks, but there is as yet no funding for them.
The UK's prestige reconnaissance pod system is the £55 million ($86 million) Goodrich Reconnaissance Airborne Pod for Tornado (RAPTOR), which is undergoing operational evaluation at RAF Marham on Tornado GR4s. It had been hoped to field the RAPTOR, which is fully digital and features a datalink, operationally over Iraq in April, but the evaluation is taking longer than expected. The RAF says the pod will be in operational use "later this year". RAPTOR uses the Goodrich's DB-110 sensors, already used operationally with a datalink on Australian General Dynamics F-111s during the 1999 East Timor crisis.
Two European users of the MLU F-16A have also recently deployed new tactical reconnaissance systems in the form of the Modular Reconnaissance Pod (MRP). It is made by Denmark's Terma, but the customers have adopted different electro-optical sensor packages, with Denmark opting for Recon/Optical and Belgium for Vinten. The Netherlands adopted a wet-film solution for their interim Per Udsen pods in the mid-1990s. These three air forces hope to further develop their capabilities with datalinks and additional digital sensors.
Saab Avionics won a contract in January to develop a new system for the Swedish air force's Saab JAS39 Gripen. Terma will supply the pods, Recon/Optical several of the sensors and L-3 Communications the digital recorders. EADS Military Aircraft has supplied new pods, with multisensor packages, for the German air force's reconnaissance Tornados. The Italian air force plans to replace the wet-film pods used by its Alenia/Embraer AMX light combat aircraft by 2005, with requirements including synthetic-aperture radar (SAR), electro-optical and infrared sensors to provide stand-off, all-weather and day and night coverage. A datalink capability to provide real-time image evaluation is central to the project.
France's air force and navy have long traditions of tactical reconnaissance and have begun an ambitious programme to field a multirole pod based on digital technology, with datalink and exploitation ground stations. Thales Optronics is prime contractor for the New Generation Reconnaissance Pod, with an in-service date of 2006 projected. Vinten is to provide the electro-optical sensors.
Future technology
While digital tactical reconnaissance technology is being deployed, the next generation of systems continue to develop. The limitation of optical sensors, particularly their inability to "see" in bad weather or through thick foliage, is driving interest in high-resolution synthetic-aperture radars that can produce three-dimensional imagery of targets.
In the UK and USA, research efforts are under way to develop SAR sensors that can be installed in modular pods to replace or complement other sensors. Israel Aircraft Industries' Elta subsidiary offers an export SAR pod, the EL/M-2060P, for use on F-16s. The USMC has a limited SAR capability on its F/A-18Ds by using software to "pipe" data from the aircraft's APG-73 radar to the ATARS pod. Thales Airborne Systems in France is developing its Synthetic Aperture Radar Imagery System (SARIS), which would have a moving target indicator (MTI) capability, for use in pods and UAVs. Thales wants to integrate SARIS on the US Navy's SHARP to open a route for use by foreign F/A-18 users.
Although fast-jet tactical reconnaissance rarely hits the headlines, commanders have come to value the contribution it can make. New digital technology is becoming more widely used and is starting to show its potential. Talk of tactical reconnaissance being obsolete is no longer heard at airbases around the world.
Source: Flight International
