Ritzy Astor.

This article reports that reconnaissance specialists of Great Britain have admitted that they don't know exactly what's going to happen when the first two airborne stand-off radar or Astor ground-surveillance aircraft are put in the hands of aircrews later this year. There are, of course, the basics, which involve use of various synthetic aperture radar (SAR) modes--including swath, spot and ground moving target indicator (GMTI) and intelligence fusion--to supply intelligence to a combat brigade headquarters about what's moving and emitting on the battlefield around it. The SAR data can be manipulated further to offer change detection, which allows the system to identify what has left or come on to the battlefield, such as mobile air defense or battlefield ballistic missiles. Using GMTI, Astor also can track where those targets of interest go.