Air Force fighters in the skies over Afghanistan and Iraq are providing powerful backing to US ground forces, responding as they always have done with on-call air support when troops come into contact with the enemy. Increasingly, however, that support features not precision attack but delivery of video on demand. Various targeting pods, developed to enhance bombing accuracy, have been pressed into service as part of the nation's intelligence-surveillance- reconnaissance (ISR) network. These airborne sensors help generate instant situation updates, either automatically or via the pilot, to troops engaged in combat. This new technique has vastly improved the ability to find and engage the enemy. Moreover, it has done so by taking advantage of capability already present, eliminating the need to conceive, finance, develop, and produce new systems.
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