On Apr 12, 7:01 am, Mike Williamson
wrote:
wrote:
Raytheon Wins Contract For Radar-Jamming Variant Of It's Miniature Air
Launched Decoy

See:

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Rayt...For_Radar_Jamm...

What advantages (if any) do expendables like this have
over regular jamming aircraft like the EA-6B?

They are cheaper and more can be built. You can also send
it into situations that are more dangerous (you already
expect to lose it, after all) than you would accept for
a manned mission.

Presumably it will not be as versatile as a specialized, manned EW
platform, given that they spend more dollars and weight on the
electronic package, but it will be employed in those missions for
which it provides the best result.

Mike

But the jammer carried can't be very sophisticated, since:

A. It must be small and light enough to fit into the small Air-
Launched-
Decoy-derrived airframe.

B. It must be cheap enough to be expendable.

C. Once it runs out of fuel and crashes, the enemy intel types will
doubtless get their hands on it (or will it have a self-destruct
system?).

Can a simple jammer like this, even if it's operating as an "In Your
Face!" (IYF!)
jammer (up close and personal to the enemy radar site), overcome the
ECCM
capability of an advanced SAM system?