BAE SYSTEMS TO PROVIDE U.S. AIR FORCE F-16 RECONNAISSANCE POD UPGRADES

BAE SYSTEMS will provide Theater Airborne Reconnaissance System (TARS) upgrades for U.S. Air National Guard F-16C Falcon aircraft under an Air Force $3.8 million contract. The Pre-planned Product Improvements (P3I) contract was awarded in December by Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

The TARS pod, developed by BAE SYSTEMS Reconnaissance and Surveillance Systems (R&SS), Greenlawn, New York, provides under the weather, daylight tactical reconnaissance to theater commanders. This initiative begins the process to upgrade the TARS fleet with a state-of-the-art, wide-bandwidth, Airborne Information Transmission (ABIT) data-link and solid state recorder.

"Reconnaissance data, by its nature, is time sensitive for critical targeting. The faster this data can get into the theater commanders hands, the faster a successful strike decision can be made,� said Mike Wallace, TARS program director. "These upgrades will enable TARS to become a critical element in the warfighter's sensor-to-shooter process.�

Twenty TARS airborne systems and five squadron ground stations were fielded in 2001 and are deployed with two U.S. Air National Guard units: 192nd Fighter Wing, Richmond, Virginia; and the 127th Fighter Wing, Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan.