Article Posted on : - Dec 03, 2010

A Lockheed Martin photo

ORLANDO, FLORIDA (BNS): The South Carolina Air National Guard have for the first time used sniper pods in combat utilizing Lockheed Martin Sniper pods on the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

While in theater, the 169th Fighter Wing employed the Sniper pod’s non-traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (NTISR) capabilities, relaying high resolution streaming video for rapid coordination with ground troops.

“The Sniper pod did exactly what we needed it to do,” said Brigadier General Scott Williams, Commander, 169th Fighter Wing, South Carolina Air National Guard.

“For a pod that was designed to destroy enemy air defenses and surface-to-air missiles, it has great capability for non-traditional ISR, which we’ve proved over the last four months in Iraq.”

During its deployment, the Sniper pod's track capability saved lives by enabling point-of-origin searches that rapidly determined the source of mortar attacks and successfully tracked enemy combatants in cluttered environments, the 169th Fighter Wing reported.

“The Air National Guard is an important Sniper operational user, with a significant number of video data link-equipped pods,” said Mark Fischer, senior business development manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.

In theater across US Air Force F-16, F-15E, A-10C and B-1 aircraft, the Sniper pod is also being integrated on the B-52.

The Sniper pod maintains a 98% fleet availability rate, and Lockheed Martin continues to field key technology upgrades to keep Sniper on the leading edge of technology and responsive to Warfighter needs.