Advanced Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance System
Advanced Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance System (ATARS) is an imaging system for image acquisition, data storage, and data link used by the United States Marine Corps on it F/A-18D Hornet aircraft. It consists of the Advanced Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance System (ATARS) with infrared and visible light sensors, two digital tape recorders, and a Reconnaissance Management System (RMS); an interface with the APG-73 Radar Upgrade (Phase II) which records synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery; and a digital data link mounted in a centerline pod. ATARS fits in the nose in place of the nose gun, with a small datalink pod mounted on the centerline station. The digital data link will transmit imagery and auxiliary data to any Common Imaging Ground/Surface Station (CIG/SS) compatible system including the Joint Services Imagery Processing System (JSIPS) or Marine Tactical Exploitation Group (TEG) based ashore and Navy JSIPS (JSIPS-N) aboard ship.
Operational Use
Each of the six U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18D squadrons have three ATARS aircraft, giving a total of 18 ATARS equipped aircraft altogether. The first operational use of ATARS equipped aircraft occurred in February 2000 when MCAS Beaufort based VMFA(AW)-332 deployed to Hungary in Operation Allied Force. ATARS equipped are a considerable advance in capability on the US Marines old RF-4B/C aircraft.
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