With all these F-18’s coming out. Something that i think would make for some fun dynamics is adding the EA-18G growler and jamming mechanics. It would be beneficial starting with a jammer on the team to jam enemy radars and make a new role at top tier
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ECM was heavily hinted at in the last CM chat post, so we may very well see it sooner rather than later, but im doubting we would see dedicated ECM aircraft at this time. unless the EA-18G is also fully combat capable. If not, you could end up with half your team just jamming and doing nothing else.
Instead I reckon we’ll just see ECM added to regular aircraft like the Sky Shadow pod on the Tornados for example
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what equivalents do other countries have to the ea-18g?
China has the j-16/15d models, unsure if any other countries have dedicated sead air craft
australia mentioned
Germany has Tornados specifically for EW iirc.
But Nations like Britain, Sweden and Italy tended towards having ECM on their regular aircraft than the expense of a dedicated fighter sized EW aircraft iirc.
So things like the Gripen and Typhoon are renown for their ECM and the Tonka’s Sky Shadow pod was very good. Even the Harrier GR7/9 have intergrated ECM
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Most countries prefer integrating advanced ew into their fighters and attackers, though we might see a dedicated Rafale variant in the future (blocks 5-6) for example. But most nations in game would just get ew features on their fighters/attackers
99% that wouldnt be similar capabilty to dedicated jammer, mostly integrated ECM are for self-protection
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It can run AMRAAM just like the super Hornet
so does the US
they just put even more EW onto the dedicated platforms
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Yeah true, though their fighters have a bit less protection than planes that can’t rely on it like the Rafale
They dont though, there is no evidence to suggest that US fighters have less effective EW than other countries fighters if anything its possible US EW has developed more than other countries due to more use and larger scope of effect
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Does the F-35 have spherical coverage like the Rafale does?
it almost definitely does
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F-22 does, F-15E, SG, SA, QA, and EX does, F-35 does, those are just the ones I know for sure
That’s not what I remembered but fair enough
If by spherical coverage you mean ECM output, thats been a thing on US aircraft since the F-15C internally and externally the F-4E, flood style defensive jammers are very common on US aircraft.
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The F-35 assuredly does not have 360 degree EW coverage like the Rafale or the Growler.
The Rafale and Growlers ECM is not comparable either, one is a dedicated EWAR aircraft and the Rafale only has defensive ECM. The likes of the AN/ALQ-99 is in a entirely different league compared to defensive jammers.
To that same end, flood style, ECM, aka “Making a ball of jamming around the aircraft” is the literal bog standard jammer in US service since Vietnam, so yes, functionally every US aircraft that can mount a internal jammer or something like a ALQ-131 has 360 degree protection since its a flood jammer.
Along with that the F-35’s entire MAWs system is what allows the pilot’s HMD see through the aircraft, if it did not provide 360 degree coverage the HMD would not function as designed.
Tee hee its called growler
ASQ-239 has 360 coverage in detection, I don’t see why it wouldn’t have it in jamming