Navy seeks 50 sensors to accelerate precision strikes

By Miriam Adler · August 10, 2026

Targets face a shorter window between being seen and being destroyed as these systems identify specific equipment and vehicles from high altitude.

The U.S. Navy needed an "organic" eye. According to a program description mirrored by the FAS Intelligence Resource Program, the goal was a manned, tactical air reconnaissance capability that could operate in any weather, day or night. This was not a request for a new tool so much as a necessary replacement; the F-14 Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod (TARPS) was already scheduled for phase-out in FY03. To fill the gap, the Navy looked to the centerline of the F/A-18E/F.

The solution was the SHAred Reconnaissance Pod, or SHARP. This system was designed to employ a suite of sensors capable of collecting infrared, visible, and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) digital imagery. The intent was to provide the Battle Group Commander with continuous and immediate intelligence support, whether the operations were independent, joint, or combined. In the cold language of the requirement, this was about the "prosecution" of operations and the security of forces.

"Precision strike capability"

The SHARP pod was never meant to be a passive observer. The FAS record is explicit: the system would be a "major contributor to the precision strike capability of GPS and digital, image-guided weapons." This is where the technical requirements move from surveillance to targeting. The goal was to integrate high-resolution imagery with weapons that could find their mark via satellite or digital signatures, reducing the distance between the act of seeing and the act of destroying.

To achieve this, the Navy sought to utilize Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) and Non-Developmental Item (NDI) dual-band electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) sensors. By using existing commercial technology, the military could accelerate the deployment of a system capable of near real-time datalinks to afloat and shore-based JSIPS stations. The distance—the "stand-off" capability—allowed the aircraft to gather intelligence from high altitudes without necessarily entering the immediate danger zone, while the digital technology ensured the imagery was compatible with Common Imagery Ground/Surface System (CIG/SS) compliant ground stations.

August 16, 1999

The timeline of the program's development is captured in a few brief citations at the bottom of the FAS page. There is a draft Performance Specification for SHARP imaging sensors dated August 2, 1999, and a draft Statement of Work dated August 1. These documents led up to an "Industry Day" on August 16, 1999.

Industry Days are the bridge where government requirements become corporate contracts. At these events, the Navy’s need for an "organic" capability—meaning a tool owned and operated by the carrier air wing rather than requested from a separate intelligence agency—is translated into a business opportunity for defense contractors. The requirement was strict: the SHARP pod had to be capable of being installed or removed with a full mission turnaround capability of less than one hour. Efficiency in maintenance is, in this context, efficiency in the tempo of surveillance.

NIIRS 3 to NIIRS 7

The document lists the Key Performance Parameters for the sensors, using the National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale (NIIRS). These numbers define the granularity of the gaze. For medium altitude overflight in the visible spectrum, the threshold was NIIRS 6, with an objective of NIIRS 7. For high altitude standoff in the infrared spectrum, the threshold dropped to NIIRS 4, with an objective of NIIRS 5.

When we read these numbers, we are reading the limits of what the state can see from the stratosphere. A NIIRS 7 image provides a level of detail that allows for the identification of specific types of equipment or vehicles. The transition from NIIRS 3 to NIIRS 7 is the transition from seeing a shape on a landscape to seeing a target. The Navy’s objective was to ensure that whether the pod was operating at medium or high altitude, the resulting imagery would be sharp enough to feed the digital, image-guided weapons mentioned earlier.

Centerline of the F/A-18E/F

The scale of the procurement was modest but focused. The Navy’s minimum warfighting requirement was set at 24 pods, but the inventory objective was 50 systems—40 for operational use and 10 for the pipeline. The entire system had to be supportable within the existing posture of the deployed carrier air wing or the forward-deployed support of the F/A-18E/F.

While the Navy desired a single sensor that could meet both medium and high altitude requirements, the program allowed for separate and interchangeable sensors that could be reconfigured into "optimum mission suites." This modularity ensured that the F/A-18E/F remained a multi-mission aircraft, capable of switching from a strike fighter to a reconnaissance platform in under an hour.

The FAS mirror captures a snapshot of this transition in 1999, a moment when the Navy was moving away from the analog era of the F-14 and toward a digital, networked future of standoff surveillance. The record ends with the administrative metadata: the page was created by John Pike and updated by Steven Aftergood on Friday, November 26, 1999, at 6:44:57 PM.