Yep, its all part of the defensive system set onboard.
The ASQ-239 itself is what would be called said defensive system as it is the system that sports the main countermeasure control computer, the AN/AAQ-37 DAS plugs into that.
Without the ASQ-239 the DAS would only be a fancy means to look through the aircraft as the 239 is the brains of the defensive systems onboard.
Italy has a dedicated version of the Tornado — the ECR.
The related suggestion was submitted in June:
As for the protection pod, while the German Tornado used the Cerberus II and the British one used the Sky Shadow, the EL/73 pod for the Italian Tornado was integrated into the airframe from the beginning. This is why Italian Tornados fly with two boz, whereas the British and German ones use one pylon for the ECM pod. The Italian Tornado’s countermeasure suite is built directly into the airframe, saving one pylon.
In short, and somewhat surprisingly, the Italian IDS’s electronic suite is superior to its contemporary British and German counterparts.
Here’s a photo of the prototype during testing of the EL/73 pod.
Shameless plug;
Impressive.
In terms of shameless advertising, it’s worth noting that the AMX is also equipped with an integrated electronic warfare suite, essentially the same as the one installed on the Tornado, designed with the same goal in mind — saving an external pylon.
The suite is the Elettronica ELT/553, which has undergone several upgrades over time ( this is the name of system itself, not the name of the external pod).
Its great to see so many people respond! I hope they do more with the game and create more roles and dynamics. Im happy to see others’ shared interest in the topic!
If you want to support the inclusion of the EA-18G in the game, consider supporting my official suggestions for the American and Australian EA-18Gs.
i completely forgot about the sap-14 pod that’s carried by the late flanker variants that is an analogue to the growler and j-15/16d pods, so add russia to this list. but its unfair for only 4 nations (including britain becuase they can get this pod through the 30mki or they can get the aussie growler) to have sead air planes so imo they shouldn’t add planes like these.
What about Tornado ECR.
I mean I could also argue that it’s unfair for only a couple nations to get 4.5 gens with MAWS, LWR, and good FM, but that didn’t stop them
forgot about tornado ngl, but compared to everyone else having gen 4.5 air frames, having a tornado out there feels very ehhh… unusuable lol. also the tornado doesn’t carry any long range air to air missiles unlike the others (the one that has the ew equipment are the ids versions which only gets 2 ir missiles)
true, but i think by the december update, all nations will have parity as they’ll finally add the ultimate heavy weights to each nation (f-15ex save me lol)
EX doesn’t have MAWS. Export ones like SA and QA do, but not the EX unfortunately.
If it got like AIM-120D’s with fairly accurate seekers, it would be ok since it would be a pretty insane BVR truck, but that’s it’s only hope.
USAF bought PIDS recently, maybe it’ll be enough to get MAWS on the F-16 but who knows. The 2 US fighters that have integrated MAWS are F-22 and F-35
the EX has its own system known as the EPAWS, its a mix of RWR and Jamming that acts on its own, although it still retains the mounting points for them, that being those two bumps on either side of the cockpit, so it theoretically could get one in the future, however i think the EPAWS system will work just fine on tis own
Iirc this was in part to simplify the process of doing the flight control system, so they wouldn’t have to change it much
indeed, its not like they’ve already had to re-do the cockpit mountings for the EX version of the aircraft on the first 4 because they were done to the other countries specifications and not the USs, but anyways, there’s roughly 14 of them up at KPDX now in the 123rd under the 142nd
Why does this look like it’s 3m tall of that pic lmao
I like this suggestion and I hope it will be added but then I also want to see an EA-6B Prowler and Tornado ECR.
Realistically, EW implementation will look something like this across the game:
America: Growler
Germany: Typhoon ECR
Russia: … (no idea if they have a dedicated ew platform, best believe gaijin will give them one)
Britain: Aussie Growler
China: J-15/16D
Japan: Thai JAS-39E
Italy: Tornado ECR
France: Some form of Rafale
Sweden: JAS-39E
Israel: Anything equipped with Elta/Elisra jamming (eg. F-15I Late, F-16I, F-35I)
With the key players being America, Britain and China, as those are the most capable dedicated EW systems
Germany can have its Tornado ECR for now; the Eurofighter EK is expected to appear around 2030 more or less.
If you think war thunder has enough longevity for 2030 then idk what to tell you, the Typhoon EK will come within the next couple of years, I’d bet money on it
As far as I know, there are no flying prototypes of the Eurofighter EK. So in a short period of time Germany can have the Tornado ECR — unless you also want to add the FCAS…
What I’m saying is that in the long run, gaijin will have to start adding these concepts because by 2030, they’l have run out of content to add.
We’ll see the ECR first, however they’ll eventually add the EK once german air has dried up again