Camera Bays
Each of the camera bays was designed to carry different cameras for specific tasks on reconnaissance missions. The forward bay held a 6" focal length serial frame camera (KS-87) on a two position rotating mount which could direct the camera's view straight down or be moved to a 45 degree angle for a forward oblique view. The second bay or middle bay of the TARPS pod originally held the 9" focal length KA-99 panoramic camera which rotated from horizon to horizon and could be used for side oblique photography. Each image in the wide field of view position produced a 36" negative. The KA-99 could carry up to 2,000 feet (610 m) of film that could be exhausted if not managed carefully by the RIO. The third camera bay held an infrared line scanner camera used for night missions or daylight mission traces. All TARPS cameras were monitored by a device call a CIPDU in the tail cone section of the pod that provided camera status to maintenance personnel and during flight provided aircraft position data onto the camera imagery for intel analysis. An electrical umbilical cord connected the pod to the control panel that was positioned on the left side of the rear cockpit. A hose from the ECS from the F-14 cooled/heated the internals of the pod in flight and kept the appropriate humidity levels constant. In 1987 VF-111 was the first squadron to deploy with a KS-153 camera system in bay two. The KS-153 used a 24" lens and was used for stand-off photography in the Persian Gulf. During Operation Desert Shield the KS-153 was used to monitor the no fly zones in Iraq.
Tomcat TARPS squadrons were staffed with Navy photographer's mates that maintained the cameras and worked with the carrier to process the imagery. TARPS squadrons also included an extra Intelligence officer and Intelligence Specialists to help plan TARPS missions and exploit the imagery afterwards. The TARPS shop maintained the cameras and removed or loaded the pod when and if needed. Wet film processing was conducted in a processing room connected to the ship's Intelligence Center (CVIC) where the Intelligence Specialists has a dedicated space with a light table for analyzing the hundreds of feet of film and exploiting the data.
Read more about this topic: Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance Pod System
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