TARS Pod Brings Picture Into Focus

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TARS Pod Brings Picture Into Focus
December 30, 2008
Air Force Print News|by TSgt. Craig Lifton

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq - High above Iraq, Air National Guard F-16 Fighting Falcons fly over suspected terrorist areas, taking high-resolution images with a sophisticated photographic system contained inside a Theater Airborne Reconnaissance System, or TARS, pod.

Ground commanders use the imagery from these 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing TARS pods to help them achieve their tactical objectives.

Tucked in a small trailer here, the 332nd Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron TARS team plays a key role in the production of imagery that is critical for ground forces' mission planning, providing battlefield operators with up-to-date imagery of roads, houses, structures, neighborhoods and other areas of interest.

The missions begin with target selections made by officials at the Combined Air Operations Center and other customer units. Next, Staff Sgt. Matt Dallas, an imagery analyst with the 332nd EOSS, starts to plan out the next day's missions.

"I develop maps with targets and route plans the pilots will take to the targets," said Sergeant Dallas, a Williamsburg, Va. native who is deployed from Langley Air Force Base, Va. "If the pilots don't know where to go, they don't get the imagery we need."


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/air-force-news/tars-pod-brings-picture-into-focus.html?col=1186032369229