TARPS resulted in Tomcats being put in harm's way shortly after it was introduced to the fleet in 1981. VF-102 Tomcats had been inadvertently been fired on by AAA and a single SA-2 SAM over Somalia in April 1983 while conducting peacetime mapping prior to a major exercise. A few months later VF-32 conducted TARPS missions in support of the invasion of Grenada and went on to join VF-43 and VF-31 in flying missions in the Eastern Med where three carriers had gathered to respond to the crisis in Lebanon. Thus, TARPS was responsible for the Tomcat's first sustained combat baptism of fire when the crisis in Lebanon heated up in 1983 requiring daily overflights over hostile AAA and SAMs. During operation El Dorado Canyon in 1986, Libya launched SCUD missiles at a US outpost on an island in the Med and VF-102 flew TARPS to ascertain if there had been any damage.