Just curious, But sense were most likely gonna get ECM and jammers relatively soon. What would be the earliest forms of ecm/Jammers we could get? Would it be on naval ships, Aircraft, tanks or infantry?
And To add more flavor, What would be the strongest jammers we could get?
ELL-8251SB/SKY SHIELD (latter also available for the ef2k) are the strongest we can get currently, powerful enough to cripple basically all ground radars in the game outside 10-15km
Earliest would be one on the ships, as they used ECM since WW2.
some of the earlier ones for air craft are already in the game on the mig-21s (sps 141), theyre just used for their counter measures though and not ecm
There is also the elephant in the room known as Adolf Tolkachev. He was a Soviet scientist who worked at the Phazotron, the Soviet Radar Bureau. He sold just about all the data on the radar of MiG 29, 35, SU27, and some SAMs to the CIA. This would mean that NATO aircraft during the 1980s and 90s specifically had their jammers tuned to these and were more effective
One of the oldest I can think of is the Red Shrimp fitted to the Avro Vulcan and Victor in 1953. Though did go onto use others such as the AN/ALQ-101 during the Falklands.
Gunjob has a good list of British aircraft that would see EW in-game
As for the Strongest… Typhoon with CAPTOR-E would certainly have to be a contender when that is hopefully added soon™
probably the strongest jamming system we could get while still retaining some capability for other roles
I’d bet the ones on the j16d/15d/su-34 are more powerful due to the sheer size of the jammers on them.
And for the su-34, its strongest jammer takes no air to air pylons
Are those propellers on jamming pods?
turbines
for extra electrical power
Earliest would be the ones seen on the F-105 and later used on F-4 during Vietnam for wild weasel missions which were very good for the time. Don’t know what else they were used on though. I believe the designation was ALQ-71
I remember hearing a story of a small squad of F-4’s using them to bait off MiG-21’s by making them think it was a F-105 group splitting off, making them easy targets because the MiG-21’s were scared to fight F-4’s or something.
apparently not very effective though
Hey, it’s an early one though, which is what they asked for.
Forgot to mention two, technically 4-5 jammers are already in game. The DIRCM on helicopters is a kind of jammer. And the IR Jammers (IRCM) on the Su-25T/Su-39. Technically I guess that constitutes the IRCM on the MI-24’s and KA-52 as jammers. So we do have a few, just not any radar jammers.
For the french planes there is some options
For the more re ent planes, they all have integrated ECM (Mirage 2000, 4000 and Rafale). The Jammer on the Rafale is suppose to be one of the best
Electronic warfare on aircraft was notably used during the vietnam war on planes like the F-105 and F-4
They had pods able to blind radars, though enemy air defenses could see the jamming and send fighters to compensate the jamming of anti-air
Earliest jamming equipment was on bombers during WW2. Both Allied and German aircraft employed both communications and radar jamming equipment. But it was pretty narrow-band, and often designed to counter very specific ground-based radars rather than Airborne Intercept radars. And initially aircraft flew as dedicated jamming/EW platforms in support of bombers, but as the war progressed there was also proliferation of jamming equipment in operational bombers - at least on the Allied side.
A few like the RAF’s Moonshine series, and Piperack which was an American-developed system called AN/APT-1, operated in frequencies that were also used by some German airborne radars.
These were carried on planes such as Lancaster, Halifax, Mosquito and B-17, B-24 etc.
Through the Korean War and Vietnam war, the technology improved, making equipment that was effective in broader bands, and more complex operations for breaking tracking or creating deception.
There were Electronic Warfare versions of the Douglas AD Skyraider and F3D Skyknight in this era that retained 20mm cannons. I’m not sure what other ordnance they might have been able to carry alongside the jamming equipment.
But yeah, it was during the Vietnam War that jamming equipment became more standard, smaller etc.
There were projects like “Shoehorn” to put systems like ALQ-51 inside many combat jets, or for them to carry a jamming pod alongside armament that could be mission-fitted to counter expected threats or more easily modernised than on-board equipment.
