Modification allows pilots to share video with ground forces

  • Published
  • By Maj. Dave Kurle
  • 442nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. --  When A-10 pilots from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., deploy to Afghanistan this spring, they will share a better picture of the battlefield with troops on the ground.

An improvement to the Litening-AT targeting pods, known as the remotely operated video enhanced receiver, lifts some of the fog of war by allowing 442nd Fighter Wing pilots to transmit real-time video to people on the ground during close air support missions.

"The most difficult part of close air support was having a guy on the ground describing a target to a guy in the air," said Col. Steve Arthur, 442nd FW commander and veteran fighter pilot. "What he sees on the ground is totally different from what you see at 10,000 to 15,000 feet.

"It's so much easier to see a picture. It really clarifies the discussion between the pilot and the ground."

ROVER is not new to the wing's 303rd Fighter Squadron pilots. They have flown in combat with the modifications but had to give them up to units deploying to Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.

The wing is receiving new kits for its targeting pods, and 303rd pilots are getting another chance to train with ROVER before deploying to Afghanistan.

The modifications use the existing imagery system in the Litening-AT pod, which boasts daylight as well as night infrared video cameras.

ROVER processes the video and transmits it to receivers on the ground carried by joint terminal attack controllers. JTACs are responsible for coordinating airstrikes and advising ground commanders about when and where to use air power in the heat of battle.

"When the signal from the pod hooks up with the JTAC, he can see on his display exactly what I'm seeing in the cockpit," said Maj. Tony Roe, an A-10 pilot and 303rd FS tactics officer. "So, all the things we see for target 'talk-ons' he sees right there on his video screen."

Talking an aircraft onto a target involves a radio conversation between a pilot and JTAC. Because the two people involved have to ensure they are seeing the same thing, these talks use up valuable time.

"Talk-ons can be long and painful," Major Roe said. "ROVER has the capability to hasten finding the target, resulting in faster bombs on target."

Before an aircraft can execute an air strike during a close air support mission, the pilot receives permission from a JTAC or commander on the ground to ensure minimal collateral damage and avoid injury to friendly forces.

Senior Airman Zach Laird is a JTAC with the 10th Air Support Operations Squadron, based with the Army's First Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kan. He used ROVER to coordinate airstrikes and advise ground commanders during a deployment to Iraq.

"ROVER definitely makes it safer because it gives everyone on the ground a 'warm-fuzzy' about what the pilot in the aircraft is seeing," he said. "I could sit there with ground commanders and see exactly what the pilots were seeing."

Airman Laird and other JTACs operate the ground stations that receive the video from the Litening-AT pods slung underneath Air Force strike aircraft. The whole set-up consists of a receiver with an antenna to receive and process the digital video, which is then displayed on a rugged version of a laptop computer.

"The only downfall to it is that you're not going to put it in your pack and hump it somewhere," Airman Laird said.

JTACs usually set up the system in a tactical operations center or a vehicle.

In addition to close air support missions, ROVER can turn an A-10 into a "non-traditional intelligence and surveillance" platform, according to Major Roe.

"In other words," he said, "the JTAC can be miles away and looking at real-time video of activity at another 'named area of interest.'"

If ground forces are elsewhere, they can look at video transmitted from ROVER and keep an eye on what is happening in a location they have visited before or will visit later, Major Roe said.

The airborne component of ROVER is a video link module -- a black metal box a little smaller than a shoebox -- that fits neatly into an existing space in the Litening-AT targeting pod. It transmits through a small round antenna that sticks out about an inch from the bottom of the pod and has the diameter of a silver dollar.

"As long as the Litening pod is ROVER-capable (meaning it is equipped with the antenna), all we do is insert the box," said Master Sgt. Daniel Thessen, an avionics technician in the 442nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron's Specialist Flight. "It works with the Litening pod's existing cameras. They just run a video line and tap off of the existing video to transmit it."

"Litening is constructed in modules, so it's designed to be 'plug-and-play,'" said Master Sgt. Daniel Abrams, another avionics technician. "As long as the pods are configured for ROVER, we don't have a problem updating them."

Sergeants Thessen and Abrams agreed that the biggest impact to maintenance is switching the few ROVER-equipped pods in the 442nd inventory between aircraft each day so more A-10 pilots can train with them.

As the Global War on Terror evolved into counter-insurgency operations, the importance of hyper-precise airstrikes and minimizing collateral damage demonstrated the need for a tool like ROVER to aid in the decisions to release weapons from aircraft, Colonel Arthur said.

"I think ROVER got funded just because of the nature of what we're doing," he said. "When you look at battles like Fallujah, it's door-to-door combat, and being able to better coordinate with forces on the ground is crucial."