Due to the flexibility of UAV systems and their long mission duration, the air vehicles can be airborne in excess of an entire ATO cycle. The ground control station will likely receive some ad hoc tasking while the UAV is in flight. These actions will, of course, be accomplished with JTF coordination and approval. Related to the UAV intelligence collection function is RSTA support for joint operations. RSTA provides information on enemy forces and installations.
RSTA assets can also assist in monitoring or verifying compliance in international agreements.
RSTA provides commanders with current data on enemy terrain, organization, infrastructure, and forces necessary for planning theater campaigns and major operations to include contingencies. 5.4.1 Collections and RSTA functions will have an impact on the targeting cycle of JTF operations. The Predator UAV will have immediate and substantial applications for target development and BDA phases of the targeting cycle. After collection of the target is accomplished, data recovery, rudimentary imagery exploitation, and dissemination will flow from the ground control station. Selected images and video will be transmitted over the dedicated communications suite with continuous video being transmitted over commercial wideband satellite, if required.